Penfolds RWT Shiraz

I wanted a wine drinking treat last night, and it worked. I had the 1998 Penfolds RWT Shiraz. In contrast to other Penfolds wines, this wine has only fruit from the Barossa, and it is fashioned in French oak.

The fruit is quite concentrated and dense, tasting of blackberry and plum. There are also quite strong espresso and mocca flavours, whereas the oak is very much in the background. Although this is a big wine, it has an elegant texture. There are lighter blueberry flavours on the finish. The wine has great length and is not sweet, largely due to the firm, but quite finely-grained dry tannins.

This RWT is a serious, almost perfect Shiraz. How does it compare with Grange? It does not have quite the complexity of flavours and perhaps not quite the same mouthfeel, but on the other hand is very balanced and more elegant. I liked this a lot.

The wine is drinking very well at 12 years and will go quite a bit longer. I do not expect any improvement from here, though.

Score: 97/+++