Penfolds hosts re-corking clinic in London

Penfolds has held its first re-corking clinic in London since 2008. It goes without saying the wines must be Penfolds wines and they must be at least 16 years old to qualify for examination, In practice, almost all wines submitted are from the icon range: Grange, St Henri, Bin 707, Bin 60A, Bin 169, RWT and Magill Estate. Red winemaker Steve Lienert said some 200 bottles had arrived by lunchtime at the London clinic, held at the Berkeley hotel in Mayfair.

If the wine is deemed in perfect condition it is topped up with up to 15ml of a more recent vintage of the same wine, recorked and certified. Duplicate paperwork relating to each wine is kept by Penfolds. Wines which are not in perfect condition are simply recorked. Wines are never recorked twice.

Penfolds is the only major producer which holds public recorkings and has examined over 110,000 bottles across the world since 1991.