As one of Australia’s oldest wineries, Penfolds has long been regarded as a key fixture on the Australian wine scene.
The 168-year-old winery goes a step further in their latest project, joining forces with glass-maker Nick Mount, designer-maker Hendrik Forster, furniture craftsman Andrew Bartlett and scientific glassblower Ray Leake to produce a cabernet sauvignon that would set you back a stupefying US$ 170,000.
The rare 2004 Kalimna Block 42 Cabernet Sauvignon is encased within a breath-taking, hand-blown ampoule, which is suspended within a bespoke Jarrah cabinet.
Only 12 vessels are available worldwide, each individually numbered and accompanied by a “Making Of” booklet and Certificate of Ownership & Authenticity signed by chief winemaker at Penfolds Peter Gago and the four contributing artists.
The Block 42 vineyard, planted during the mid-1880s in South Australia’s Barossa Valley, is thought to be the oldest continuously-producing Cabernet Sauvignon vines in the world.
“There is something really magical about the 2004 Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet,” Gago says “It has an ethereal dimension and a saturated blackness on the palate, it’s extraordinarily perfumed with layer upon layer of flavour.”
In 2011, US wine critic James Suckling gave the wine a perfect 100/100 score.
To sample the wine, you’ll have to enlist the help of a senior member from Penfolds winemaking team, who would remove the ampoule from the plumb-bob with a “specially designed, tungsten-tipped, sterling silver scribe-snap”.
