Australian winery Penfolds, already an international name thanks to its best-known Shiraz-based wine Grange, has taken another audacious step in its global ambitions.
Today it announced the release of its 2021 California Collection: four wines produced in California but made to an Australian winemaking template.
Two of the four, blending Californian and Australian fruit from the 2018 vintage, are branded Wine of the World. It is a bold move – which will no doubt upset some more conservative commentators – and breaks with many conventions.
Scroll down to see how our Australian and US tasters each rate the Penfolds California Collection wines
First, it asserts the distinctly Australian flavour of blending Cabernet Sauvignon with Shiraz. Second, it labels both the Quantum Bin 98 Cabernet Sauvignon-Shiraz and Bin 149 Cabernet Sauvignon under the global Wine of the World appellation. And third, Quantum comes with a release price of £545 or $700.
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Penfolds’ new Wine of the World and California releases
We asked David Sly in South Australia and Matthew Luczy, Decanter’s California correspondent based in Los Angeles, to taste these wines independently to see how both an Australian and American palate would assess these unique wines…
{}
{"wineId":"46601","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"46602","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"46603","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"46604","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{}
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