Penfolds Max's Cabernet Sauvignon

Max Schubert, the winemaker who returned from Bordeaux in 1950 and pioneered barrel fermentation in Australian red wine, lends his name to this Cabernet Sauvignon — a deliberate nod to the technical lineage that defines Penfolds' house DNA. Sourced from Barossa Valley, where ancient, deep alluvial and sandy loam soils — phylloxera-free and among the oldest continuously-farmed Cabernet ground on earth — produce fruit of concentrated, sun-saturated character. The Kalimna property, home to Cabernet vines planted in the 1880s, anchors the fruit profile with structural density and dark-berry depth that younger plantings rarely match. Maturation follows the Penfolds hogshead tradition, using seasoned American oak barrels that deliver the house's signature mid-palate richness without overwhelming the fruit with new-wood tannin — a deliberate calibration for approachability. The multi-vineyard blending philosophy, the antithesis of single-terroir orthodoxy, allows the winemaking team to select across Barossa sub-zones for consistency vintage to vintage. What distinguishes Max's within the Penfolds range is its position as the entry point into the house's red winemaking philosophy — the same Barossa fruit sources, the same hogshead regime, the same blending discipline — compressed into an everyday format without compromise on provenance.