Bin 707 is what Penfolds makes when Cabernet works. Penfolds reserves the label for vintages that justify it, and when the fruit doesn't meet the house's bar the wine doesn't appear. That alone separates it from almost every other flagship Cabernet on the market.
Penfolds first released Bin 707 in 1964. Since then it has skipped at least ten vintages — a full six-year run in the early 1970s when the fruit was diverted to other wines, plus single misses including 2000, 2011 and 2020. Bordeaux makes wine every year. Bin 707 does not.
Penfolds
When it does appear, the blend pulls from Barossa, Coonawarra, Padthaway, Robe and Wrattonbully — the warmer powerhouse sites and the cooler, more structured ones, assembled into a single Penfolds-house silhouette. American oak gives it the dense, sweet-vanilla frame Penfolds Cabernet has worn since Max Schubert's era. Critics regularly score recent releases in the mid-90s.
Reading a Bin 707 vintage is therefore reading a verdict. When Penfolds releases the wine, the house has decided the fruit could carry the label. When they don't, you can pay attention to what the other Penfolds wines did instead. Few flagship Cabernets in the world come with that kind of editorial.
