1995 Penfolds Reserve Bin 95A Chardonnay

Notes sourced from Southcorp Wines.

This multi-award winning one-off 'special bin' wine was made alongside the first vintage of Penfolds' flagship white wine, Yattarna. It follows the successful release of 1994 Penfolds Reserve Bin 94A -- another special bin wine released in 1998. Penfolds Special Bin wines are made to showcase what Penfolds' winemakers can achieve when they have access to small quantities of high quality material in superior vintages. Careful selection of grapes from some of the best vineyards in the Adelaide Hills - a pre-eminent Chardonnay source -- has resulted in a very limited quantity of this superb Chardonnay. Individual barrels were selected for perfect integration and complexity, fruit expression and classy, fine grain French oak. There was no filtration at bottling and complete malolactic fermentation.Vintage Conditions were warm and disease-free, yielding ripe fruit with excellent natural acidity. The wine was matured for 10 months in a combination of new (68 per cent) and used (32 per cent) one-year-old fine grained French oak barriques. It was stored on yeast lees for 10 months.Light to medium straw colour with green hues. The nose displays evocative barrel fermentation characters with complex cashew nut and creamy overtones. Intense citrus and peach aromas combine with a lovely rich toastiness, refined yeast autolysis and gunsmoke nuances.The palate is rich, powerful and intense. Superb integration of fruit and oak resulting from barrel fermentation and storage on yeast lees. An excellent, soft, creamy mouthfeel and nutty flavours that linger on for minutes after tasting. A classic, cool-climate Chardonnay of great style and finesse. 13.1% alcohol volume.