Winemaker Notes
An excellent example of contemporary Coonawarra Cabernet. Powerful yet restrained, this is a wine of great concentration. A complex nose full of cassis, mulberry, violets and licorice. The medium-bodied framework is built by the textural tannins. The palate is bold, generous and seductive, driven by a core of succulent fruit providing superb length and persistence, with just enough earthy tannin for balance. This wine can be enjoyed now, but will also reward those patient enough to cellar.
Vegan-Friendly
Professional Ratings
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Australian Wine Companion
Small batches of the best parcels of fruit, matured separately in French oak for 18 months (30% new). Blackberry pie on the nose, this is concentrated and pure in its expression of both Coonawarra (black fruit, eucalyptus and ferrous) and exotic spice. On the palate the tannins are pronounced, and they certainly impact the fruit, but it is clear from the sheer volume of flavour that swells in the mouth that they will be no match in time. They will recede into the tidal wave of flavour and serve only to carry and guide the fruit through the finish, as Helios' chariot drove him across the sky. Inchoate as this is, it will emerge a superstar.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
I last tasted the 2020 Helios Cabernet Sauvignon in early 2022 (12 months ago now, or thereabouts), and I remember clearly the tannins that were firm and pervasive. Today, they are not lessened by the passage of time, but neither is the fruit that rides upon them. This is a seriously savory, very substantial Cabernet Sauvignon that will cellar very well over the coming decades. From its clear reticence to budge over the past year, one assumes it will take some time to emerge from this very young stage.
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Wine Enthusiast
Still in its infancy, this is a densely packed Cab with layers and detail that will be enhanced with more time in bottle. Aromas of black currant, blood plum, mint chocolate, coffee, truffles, baking spices—and earthy ones, too—kick things off. The full-figured palate offers intense, concentrated blackberry fruit, graphite, dried herb and spice flavors. There’s a succulence that, despite the hulking tannins, doesn’t get lost.
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Wine Spectator
Dense, with bold, toothsome tannins that make a terrific background to the concentrated flavors of boysenberry, blackberry and cassis, showing accents of bittersweet chocolate, malty Assam black tea, dried rosemary and black pepper. Wave after wave of flavor details emerge on the long, expressive and equally dense finish.
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James Suckling
This has a leafy character with blackberries and blackcurrants, as well as notes of black olives and bark. Medium-bodied with a delicate, blue-fruited character. Fine-grained, chalky tannins. Polished and easy to drink.
Penley Estate is located in the center of Australia's most famous Cabernet region: Coonawarra. Continuing a family tradition that spans five generations, the winery was established in 1988 when the Tolley children continued the winemaking heritage of their pioneering families, Penfold and Tolley, both storied names in the Australian wine industry. In 1844, Mary Penfold defied stereotypes and was the driving force behind the establishment of McGill Estate. Similarly, from 1948-1961, Gladys Penfold Hyland was Penfold's Chairman of the Board. Their descendants, sisters Bec and Ang Tolley, run Penley Estate, proudly channeling the vim and might of their ancestors. Penley Estate's 240 acres of vineyards were planted atop Coonawarra's "terra rossa" soils with the aim of producing terroir-driven wines with distinctive regional character, and is now regarded as one of the region's leading Cabernet and Shiraz producers.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
Distinguished by a thin, subterranean band of crumbled, red clay loam, Coonawarra is a fairly flat, otherwise unobtrusive region with a cool Mediterranean climate, actually not dissimilar to Bordeaux.
In Coonawarra, this unique layer of red clay is called, "terra rossa" and gets its color from iron oxide. The terra rossa soil overlies soft, penetrable limestone, in a continuous area that is part of the Limestone Coast zone of South Australia. This uncommon layering of soils creates a substrate that is both well draining and at the same time, offers good water retention to support vine roots through dry summers.
Not surprisingly, Coonawara experiences great success with the Bordeaux varieties, namely Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, but also Shiraz. However Cabernet reigns superior and accounts for half of the Coonawarra harvest each year. Coonawarra Cabernet Sauvignon develops powerful, yet polished tannins, ripe, red berry fruit and often sweet herb or dried mint qualities. The region has an increased focus on the individual expressions of single vineyards.