Penfolds RWT Bin 798 Shiraz Barossa Valley Limited Relese Lunar New Year Snake Edition

When Peter Gago's team conceived RWT (Red Winemaking Trial) Bin 798, the deliberate provocation was structural: strip out the American oak hogsheads that define every other Penfolds red and mature Barossa Shiraz entirely in French oak — a direct challenge to the house's own 180-year signature. That transgression is the wine's entire identity. Sourced from the Barossa Valley's ancient, deep alluvial and sandy loam soils — phylloxera-free, old-vine country — the fruit carries the density and glyceric weight that only these low-vigour, heat-retaining floors can produce, while French oak delivers finer-grained tannin architecture than the hogshead regime of Grange would permit. Vinification follows Penfolds' temperature-controlled fermentation protocol using acclimatised pure yeast cultures, with the resulting wine matured in French oak barriques rather than the American hogsheads used for Bin 95. The 2022 Lunar New Year Snake Edition is a limited-release presentation of this same liquid, distinguished by its commemorative packaging — the wine inside is RWT's standard Barossa Shiraz expression. What no peer in the Penfolds hierarchy does: RWT is the sole wine in the portfolio where French oak is the exclusive aging vessel, making it the house's most Rhône-adjacent expression despite being unambiguously Barossa in fruit character. Drink 2026–2038.