Penfolds Magill Estate Monopole 2019

Penfolds Magill Estate Shiraz, Adelaide, Australia, 2019

Grape: 100% Shiraz. One of the very few Penfolds wines from a single vineyard (Magill Estate - Adelaide). Aged for 18 months in French (26% new) and American (6% new) oak hogsheads.

The single-vineyard Magill Estate Shiraz is intrinsically linked to Penfolds beginnings. Sourced from the Magill vineyard on the edge of Adelaide’s eastern suburbs (just eight kilometres from the city’s CBD), fruit is crushed, fermented and matured on-site at the original winery, established in 1844. Magill Estate Shiraz, first produced in 1983, is an elegant, medium-weight style with velvety texture and fine tannins, matured in both French and American oak. It is a sleek, contemporary wine, yet crafted the original way: hand-picked, vinified in open fermenters and then basket pressed to complete fermentation in barrel.

Colour: Dense plum red

Nose:

Smells like … Magill Shiraz!

Tell-tale lavender florals and subtle wafts of unmistakable Penfolds élevage – “more flinty than formic”!

Certainly convinces that what is poured is at the riper end of the Magill fruit spectrum – an energetic thrust of a soaked dark boiled fruit cake richness.

Beneath this saturated propulsion - gravy notes (lamb) with thyme and Moroccan spices, and just a skerrick of distant oak.

Open ferments, basket pressing, and barrel ferment certainly have coalesced to escribe their aromatic Magill mark!

Palate:

Raspberry coulis, seed of plum/dark cherry and anise.

Please excuse the chocolate penchant … but where to begin?

• Chocolate fondue (self-melting) with crushed nuts.

• Chocolate coated ginger.

• Black Forest cake and ‘real’ Rocky Road with cherry.

“Italianesque” acidity and salivating tannins collude to deliver a mouth-watering finish.

And, this finish is also endowed with a reminder of oak derived cola/vanillin/malt.

Reviews:

"Blackish purple. Rather more lifted than the St Henri Shiraz 2018. There's a certain delicacy to this wine – unusual for a Penfolds Shiraz! Yes it ends with some tannin but it's fine tannin reminiscent of polished leather. This is salty and sweet in a good way. Lots of appeal here."

17.5/20 points, Jancis Robinson, jancisrobinson.com July 2021

"From the vineyard at the winery in the Adelaide suburbs, the 2019 Magill Estate Shiraz delivers mouthwatering notes of blueberries and vanilla, spiced up by hints of cracked pepper, espresso grounds and black olives. Aged in a combination of American and French oak, it's a full-bodied, rich, concentrated wine loaded with velvety tannins, firmly in the Penfolds style. Give it another few years in the cellar, then drink it over the next 15 years or so."

94/100 points, Joe Czerwinski, Wine Advocate, July 2021

"Very deep, dense purple/red colour, with a powerful aniseed, mocha, licorice, black-fruit and bitumen bouquet. Exotic spices, coal-dust and tar. The palate is rich and fleshy, powerful and concentrated but without any hint of astringency. There is a delicious core of sweetly ripe berry fruit flavour, lush and decadent, then a wash of fine-grained, powdery tannins that maintains the impeccable balance and structure. A simply marvellous red wine."

98/100 points, Huon Hooke

Also rated 94/100 points, Wine Spectator, November 2021