It is a tradition at Penfolds to experiment, research and develop new wines. The large number of mostly one-off, bin-numbered wines produced, beginning in the 1950s, is a testament to a company diversifying away from its core business of fortified wines. In the 1960s, the primary aim was to make ‘show wines’, but the program also resulted in the development of current-day staples like Bin 707 and Bin 389 and, more recently, Bin 407, RWT Shiraz and Yattarna Chardonnay.

In effect, the first two ‘Special Bin’ wines were the then-experimental 1951 Grange and the ‘control wine’ Max Schubert made alongside it so he could see what the wine would be like matured in a single, old 4500-litre cask rather than the new, 300-litre American oak barrels in which he put the ‘real’ Grange. That wine is now forgotten, but, said Schubert (in 1979): ‘It did... set the guidelines for the production and marketing of a whole range of special red wines which have been sought after, vintage by vintage, to this day’.

Schubert’s successors, the late Don Ditter, John Duval and Peter Gago, continued the tradition, making small-batch wines (1000 dozen or less) for comparison with existing styles, to try out something new in the way of varietal or regional combinations or simply to spotlight a brilliant parcel of fruit. Some may be forgotten in time, but others are considered among the greatest Australian wines of all time.

Medium-deep brick crimson. Intense walnut, leafy redcurrant, chinotto and cassis aromas with mocha notes. Generous and supple with leafy sage, blackcurrant, mocha, vanilla and sweet fruit flavours, fine slinky tannins and attractive mid-palate velvetiness. Chalky firm at the finish with forthright acidity. Fresh and mature showing great Coonawarra provenance.