Penfolds Max’s Shiraz Cabernet 2021

Description

Plum core with strawberry brightness at the rim in appearance. Notes of graphite and heady varnish to the fore. A distinctive blue-fruited elegance and gorgeous cranberry sweetnes. An aromatic kaleidoscope of vanilla sponge, cannoli creaminess, asphalt, wet slate, juniper and pink peppercorn. A salinity – perhaps best described as salted plum? Coolness/flowing texture. Spearmint tea (fresh leaves) and lavender. Graphite from the nose continues as a theme on the palate, Black olive tapenade. Ylang Ylang, powdery-style tannins that are tapered on the palate. All clearly converging to a well-defined point.

Wine Enthusiast

• we91

This inky-hued Cab-Shiraz blend is a broody bottling, with a savory, black olive and dusty library-book note to the raspberry and black-cherry fruit. There’s a minty, earthy nuance too, plus a subtle polish of mealy, chocolatey oak. The powerful palate is densely packed with dark fruit and spice, cinched by chiseled tannins. While intended as Penfolds’s more approachable range, this vintage is a big, chewy one.

Christina Pickard, July 1, 2024

Wine Spectator

• ws89

This red’s dense, bittersweet chocolateinfused mix of blackberry and blueberry flavors is velvety, showing notes of black tea and spices that linger. Shiraz and Cabernet. Drink now. 5,539 cases imported.

MaryAnn Worobiec, October 21, 2024