Penfolds RWT Bin 798 Shiraz

When Penfolds released the first RWT (Red Winemaking Trial) in 1997, it was a deliberate internal provocation: could Barossa Shiraz carry 100% French oak without losing its identity? The answer redrew the house's red-wine map. Where Grange is defined by new American hogsheads, RWT Bin 798 is matured entirely in French oak barriques — a structural departure that produces a darker-spiced, more restrained tannin architecture from the same ancient Barossa floor.

The fruit is sourced from Barossa Valley's deep alluvial and sandy loam soils — phylloxera-free old vines whose root systems penetrate well below the surface, concentrating flavour without irrigation stress. That combination of ancient vine age and free-draining sandy loam over clay subsoil delivers the density and mid-palate weight that French oak can frame without overwhelming.

The 2018 vintage earned eight perfect scores from leading critics including Andrew Caillard MW, Lisa Perrotti-Brown, and Ken Gargett, alongside 98 pts from Wine Spectator — an exceptional growing season delivering superb concentration and structural precision. Chief Winemaker Peter Gago designates the drinking window as 2030–2060+, placing this firmly in the cellar-candidate tier. What no peer in the Penfolds range does: RWT breaks the house's own American-oak signature to prove that Barossa Shiraz has the architecture to absorb Burgundian cooperage at full intensity.