Professional Ratings

• 94 The Somm Journal

  This multiregional California blend contains fruit from Napa, Sonoma, and the winery’s own Camatta Hills property, planted to cuttings from its Kalimna and Magill estates in South Australia; located in Paso Robles’ Creston District, it was originally called Creston 600 Ranch, and the wine was named Bin 600 in its honor. With its rolling hills, large diurnal temperature swings, and clay-loam and calcareous soils, the terroir is reminiscent of the Barossa Valley, and it shows in the wine’s herb-kissed depth of blackberry and plum, which morphs into a rare–roast beef meatiness. Sparked by salinity, caperberry and olive tapenade come into play. A streak of chocolate-almond croissant provides voluminous softness while sweetening the savory elements

• 93 James Suckling
  A very fine and polished red with cherry, berry, chocolate and cedar aromas and flavors. Some spice and meat with hints of tea leaf. Some ash, too. Medium body and extremely refined texture, showing real balance and elegance. The tannins spread across the palate in a beautiful way. 78% cabernet sauvignon and 22% shiraz. Drink or hold.
• 93 Wine Enthusiast

  This is a blend of 78% Napa Valley and Sonoma-grown Cabernet Sauvignon and 22% Shiraz from Paso Robles. IT is a smooth and earthy wine that offers flavors of leather, earth, iron and crushed rock cut against herbal accents. 

• 92 Decanter

  It’s a brassy move to indoctrinate Californian fruit with a strapping Aussie identity, in a Cab-Shiraz clearly fashioned to fit the Penfolds' mould. The addition of 22% Shiraz brings warmth and plum pudding generosity to the mid-palate, a warm embrace of firm red fruits that is both bold and cohesive. An arresting nose presents lifted spice notes – clove, allspice and nutmeg – along with a shaving of cedar wood, while the assertive oak influence and biting tannins speak with a boisterous Australian accent rather than a Californian drawl.

• 92 Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
  COMMENTARY: The 2018 Penfolds Bin 600 California Cabernet Shiraz shows a classic Aussie mindset and how well it integrates into the California scene. TASTING NOTES: This wine exhibits attractive aromas and flavors of black fruit and anise. Pair it with a thoughtful-seasoned corned beef and cabbage. (Tasted: March 4, 2021, San Francisco, CA)
• 90 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

  This 2018 Bin 600 is the first release of this new Penfolds California label. It is a blend of two different regions and two different varieties: 78% Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley and 22% Shiraz from their vineyards in the Camatta Hills area of California Central Coast (about 15 miles east of Paso Robles). The interesting twist to the story behind this wine is that Block 10 in the Camatta Hills vineyard was planted in the late 1990s with Shiraz cuttings from two of Penfolds's most iconic South Australia vineyards: Magill Estate and Kalimna vineyard. This is the Shiraz component. "So," Peter Gago told me, "this has been a project in the making for a long time. We see this project as a continuation—making wine through a Penfolds lens, but made in California."