Well, BIN is simply a Batch Identification Number.
BIN numbers refer to the storage area in a wine cellar where these wines have been held or stored before being sold…. something like an address, but for wines.
Newly created wines would be given the number of the BIN they were stored in. Each BIN label has its own unique character and style. For example, Penfolds Bin 2 refers to the unique blend of Shiraz and Mataro (also known as Monastrell or Mourvèdre). It is a wine that reminisce a summer-pudding swirl of fruits laced with red-currant conserve, praline, green Sicilian olive, plummy fruits and spice. Penfolds Bin 8 on the other hand, is a Shiraz Cabernet blend. A classic Australian wine style / blend, which is chock-full of rich blackberry fruit, spiced oak and vanilla pod nuance. Bin 8 was given its number because it uses older oak previously used for Bin 128, Bin 28 and Bin 389 – with ‘8’ obviously providing the common thread.
For each vintage, the winemakers replicate the style of each BIN to maintain consistency.
The Most Collected Bins
Penfolds is by far the most popular brand when it comes to Australia's most collected wines. There are a number of Bins in the Penfolds portfolio that is popular in a wine collector’s cellar. This includes Bin 28 (named after the famous Barossa Valley Kalimna Vineyard), Bin 150 (a sub-region Marananga shiraz), Bin 407 (a South Australian Cabernet from multi regions and multi vineyards) and Bin 128 (a single-region Coonawarra Shiraz) to name but a few. But perhaps the most collected Penfolds Bin is 389, which is a South Australian Cabernet-Shiraz blend. Bin 389 is often referred to as ‘Baby Grange’, in part because components of the wine are matured in the same barrels that held the previous vintage of Grange. In Australia, Wine Ark lists, Bin 389 is the second most cellared wine in Australia after Penfolds Grange.
The current vintage of the 2018 Bin 389 Cabernet-Shiraz was given a suggested drinking window of 2023-2050 by the winemaking team, showing that not only do these wines have terrific aging potential but can also be drunk young with the new world fruit characteristics.