1996 Penfolds Magill Estate Shiraz

Notes sourced from Southcorp Wines.

Magill Estate is a single-vineyard wine. As the name suggests, all grapes are grown on the historic Magill Vineyard, located within the metropolitan area of Adelaide, South Australia. The Magill Estate Vineyard is the original Penfolds vineyard established by Dr Christopher Rawson Penfold in 1844. The vineyard is now 5.2 hectares in size and consists entirely of Shiraz vines planted between1951 and 1985.

The Magill Estate wine is a departure from Penfolds' multi-district blending philosophy. The wine was created by then Chief Winemaker, Don Ditter, working closely with Max Schubert who had retired at this stage. It is the only wine now made at Magill, in the same open fermenters which the earlier Granges and Special Bin Reds were created. The wine is matured in new French and new American oak at the Magill Estate and then bottled with minimal interference from filtration or fining. The Magill Estate Shiraz is less reliant on sheer power, with an emphasis on structure and fruit. It is a truely hancrafted wine.

1996 was an outstanding year yielding some of the most exciting wines for several years from Penfolds. After the drought conditions in 1995, much needed rains replenished the soils during the winter across most of South Australia. The first half of the growing season was dry and cool, allowing the fruit to set and mature slowly. The last two months of the season warmed to bring in physically mature, ripe complex fruit.

The wine was matured in 62% new French oak and 38% new American oak. Concentrated, bright crimson colour. The nose displays rich, spicy berry fruits with mocha lying beneath. Subtle floral, and cedar oak nuances combine with smoky barrel ferment characters to evolve and complex in the glass.Medium bodied palate, exhibiting flavours of a compote of dark berries, plums and prune,with a lively spice lift. Classy cedary oak and vanilla barrel notes align with rounded pronounced tannins to create this crafted and complete shiraz style. This wine has great potential and, although tempting now, will yield great rewards to those who can force themselves to cellar it for the long term. 13.8% alcohol volume.