November 30, 2018

HENRY’S DRIVE Shiraz 2013

(Padthaway, South Australia, Australia) $45

Beautiful structure and lift. Tight, focused, sleek, and exact. Gymnastics? No … wine. Henry’s Drive Shiraz comes from Padthaway, in the southern part of South Australia near the open bay known as the Great Australian Bight. This is a classic example of shirazes from that region which are sleeker and taste perhaps a bit fresher than many Barossa shirazes. One hallmark of nearly all top Australian shirazes is their generosity of fruit and flavor. This is one delicious, mouthfilling example. (14.5% abv)

90 points KM

Available at Vivino.com

What well-known wine region boasts a famous wine named after a Boeing plane?

A. Wachau, Austria

B. South Australia, Australia

C. Walla Walla, Washington

D. Rheingau, Germany

In 1964 in South Australia, Penfolds created the “Bin 707” cabernet sauvignon, naming it after the iconic Boeing 707 jetliner. Today, at $500 a bottle, “Bin 707” is Australia’s most expensive cabernet. The massively structured, intensely flavored wine is aged 20 months in 100% new American oak “hogshead” barrels and is considered one of Australia’s most age-worthy cabernets. As for how it came to pass that the wine was named after an airplane, when the first vintage of the “Bin 707” was released in 1964, a Penfolds board member was also on the board of Qantas, an airline which was releasing a new Boeing 707 at the same time. The Boeing 707 was thought to be the aircraft that would better connect Australia with the rest of the world. Inspired to do the same with their collection of wines, Penfolds named their wine “Bin 707.”

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The excitement about Long Dai―Château Lafite Rothschild’s new winery in Shandong province on the eastern seaboard of China―continues unabated. It’s been 11 years since the complex winery/vineyard project began, but only this fall will the… Continue reading

HENRY’S DRIVE Shiraz 2013

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