Penfolds Bin 311 Chardonnay 2018
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Product Details
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Winemaker Notes
The 2018 Penfolds Bin 311 Chardonnay is a light straw color. The nose is full-flavored, endowed with a concentrated fruit spectrum of citrus, grapefruit, and white peach. Hints of sherbet, chamomile, and goats cheese complex the aromatic offer – a chardonnay cast assembled from three States of Australia. Certainly, there’s quite the performance happening in the glass, with barely a swirl of the glass and some air required to light up the stage! First and foremost, this wine extolls freshness, yet not at the expense of an endearing richness and generosity of flavour. Whilst some may perceive it to be slightly ‘larger-framed’ than in previous years it nevertheless retains trademark Bin 311 mineral acidity and linearity. Rock melon and white peach fruits are pronounced. Underlying sherbet and fresh lemon tart impressions coupled with a lovely creaminess add to the structural and flavour pool. A trademark Penfolds phenolic grip certainly doesn’t curtail length or volume.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This moves into refined and very striking style with a wealth of lemons, white peaches and nectarines on offer, as well as nicely curated hazelnut-oak. The smoothly honed palate has deep-set peach flavors and a succulent, cool-mineral and grapefruit finish. The finest Bin 311 to date.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2018 Penfolds Bin 311 Chardonnay is beautifully layered and finishes nicely. TASTING NOTES: This wine is redolent of ripe fruit, light minerality, and a hint of oak in its aromas and flavors. Try it with pan-fried chicken thighs and wild mushrooms over egg noodles. (Tasted: August 29, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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Jeb Dunnuck
Bottled under screwcap, the 2018 Chardonnay Bin 311 comes all from cool climate sites in southeastern Australia and was brought up in French oak. Its light gold hue is followed by a racy perfume of stone fruits, crushed citrus, white flowers, and salty minerality. With plenty of richness, medium body, and nicely integrated acidity, this rock-solid Chardonnay is drinking great today yet has the class and balance to evolve for 4-6 years or more. It’s an impressive Chardonnay.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Bin 311 Chardonnay is a multiregional blend sourced from Adelaide Hills (43%), Tumbarumba and Tasmania—it was previously a single-region bottling. Essentially, it's now a blend of barrels that didn't make it into the Reserve Bin label from the Adelaide Hills and barrels from Tumbarumba and Tassie that didn't make the Yattarna grade. Fermented and aged in 30% new French oak (20% second use and 50% older), it reveals hints of vanilla buttercream on the nose, paired with notes of pineapple, orange, pear and melon. It's medium-bodied, plump and creamy across the palate, then crisp and focused on the finish.
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Wine Enthusiast
This now-multiregional Chardonnay blend from wine giant Penfolds is a pretty, fruity number with both the polish associated with this brand and upfront appeal. Waxed apple, peach and lime aromas kick things off. There's a fringe of salt, like the rim of a margarita glass. Laser-like acidity slices through the highly textural palate, leading once again to a long, salty finish
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Wine Spectator
Bright, fresh ruby grapefruit and pear flavors leap out of the glass, with a hint of mandarin orange and a succulent frame. White floral details linger on the finish.
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Decanter
The ‘white Grange’ Yattarna and Reserve Bin A from the Adelaide Hills are the pinnacle of Penfolds Chardonnays, but this cross-regional blend from Tasmania, South Australia’s Adelaide Hills and Tumbarumba in New South Wales offers a hint of those lofty heights in a more affordable package. It’s expressive and detailed, with a savoury kick of wild yeast, flinty notes, baking apples and sweet spice, and a crisp bite of acidity. Drinking Window 2020 - 2024
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Penfolds has been producing remarkable wines since 1844 and indisputably led the development of Australian fine wine in the modern era. The introduction of Penfolds Grange in 1951 forever changed the landscape of Australian fine wine. Since then a series of stand-out wines both white and red have been released under the Penfolds masthead.
Peter Gago, Penfolds Chief Winemaker and only the 4th custodian of Grange, relishes the opportunity to bring Penfolds to the world stage and is an enthusiastic ambassador and natural educator. Penfolds came to the attention of the US market when 1990 Grange was Wine Spectator’s ‘Wine of the Year’. Since then, Penfolds Grange has become one of the most collectable wines of the world and was honored to grace the front cover, once again, of Wine Spectator, with declarations of Grange as Australia’s Icon.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
In essence a viticultural "super zone" covering Australia's best wine regions from the Pacific coast of Queensland across the states of New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the southeastern half of South Australia. The term is used when vintners choose to source fruit from multiple regions in order to maintain a consistent finished wine from year to year.