1998 Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon
Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon is the Cabernet equivalent of Grange: ripe, intensely-flavoured fruit, fermented and matured in new American oak, and expressing the Penfolds policy of multi-vineyard, multi-region fruit-sourcing. Named by an ex-Qantas marketing man, the first Bin 707 was the 1964 vintage. Big and long-lived, Bin 707 has a secure place among the ranks of Australia'sfinest Cabernets.
97 Points - Jeremy Oliver: In the footsteps of the brilliant 1996 wine comes another densely packed, multi-layered 707 of rare strength and depth. So young it simply couldn't be opened now, its deep flavours of blackcurrants, dark cherries and plums are ripened to the point of headiness, and ably counter its cedary, nutty, chocolate oak and monumental extract of puckering, ripe tannins.
96 Points - Bob Campbell: Very deep, youthful colour and a very rich, fleshy, concentrated style with extravagant ultra-ripe but not overripe fruit aromas and flavours, not overtly cabernet-like but showing dominant ripe fruit characters plus the after-effects of strong oaking, typical of Penfolds Bin 707, and now very complex and layered. A very impressive wine, of density and high extract. Long term; superb. *Gold*