Tasting Notes
Colour: Deep, dark red, almost opaque.
Aroma: Concentrated creme de cassis and damson plums to the fore, with floral aromas in the background. Nutty oak complexed by barrelferment characters.
Palate: An opulent, flamboyant wine with definitive varietal characters: exaggerated blueberry/blackberry fruit, but without jamminess, layers of flavour, obvious but balanced oak and pronounced, chewy, ripe tannins. Impressively long in flavour, without reliance on alcohol. A wine to challenge the great 707s of 1996 and 1990.
Background
Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon is the Cabernet equivalent of Grange: ripe, intensely-flavoured fruit, fermented and matured in new American oak, and expressing the Penfolds policy of multi-vineyard, multi-region fruit-sourcing. Named by an ex-Qantas marketing man, Bin 707 was first vintaged in 1964. The wine was not made from 1970 to 1975 (when the focus shifted to Bin 389) nor in 1981, 1995 or 2000 (when fruit of the required style and quality was not available). Big and long-lived, Bin 707 has a secure place among the ranks of Australia’s finest Cabernets. Packaged in laser-etched bottles from the 1997 vintage.
Reviews
"The outstanding 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 707 is a thick, rich, full-bodied Cabernet emphasizing copious quantities of cassis fruit. Pure, with nicely integrated oak, acidity, and tannin, it cuts a broad swath across the palate. While still young and grapy, this 1998 is loaded with potential. Anticipated maturity: 2002-2015."Rating 90 - Robert Parker, Wine Advocate - Tasted Jun 2001
