Penfolds Bin Numbers, Decoded (2026): Why 389 Is “Baby Grange,” What 707 Has to Do with a Boeing — and 8 Bins from $22.99
Walk the Australian shelf and you hit a wall of numbers. Bin 28, Bin 128, Bin 138, Bin 389, Bin 407, Bin 600, Bin 704, Bin 707. They run from about twenty-three dollars to over three hundred, they are not in order, and nothing on the label explains them.
Here is the thing almost everyone gets wrong: the number is not a quality rating and it is not a price tier. "Bin" is short for batch identification number, and it originally referred to the physical storage bin in the cellars at Magill Estate in South Australia where that batch was laid down to mature. A shelf location. That's it.
Which sounds like the numbers are meaningless. They aren't — they've just been meaningful by accident for sixty-five years. Once you learn the handful of patterns that emerged, the whole shelf sorts itself.
The eight Bin wines in this guide
Rule one: the last two digits are usually the grape
This is the single most useful pattern, and it holds up more often than it has any right to.
Numbers ending in 28 are Shiraz. Numbers ending in 07 are Cabernet Sauvignon. Numbers ending in 89 are the Cabernet–Shiraz blend. So:
- Bin 28 and Bin 128 — Shiraz
- Bin 407, Bin 704 and Bin 707 — Cabernet Sauvignon
- Bin 389 — Cabernet Shiraz
- Bin 138 — the exception, a Shiraz Grenache Mataro blend
Two numbers from the same family are the same wine idea at different scales, not better and worse versions of each other. Penfolds Shiraz Bin 28 ($34.99) is the original — the first wine in the Bin series, created in 1959 while Grange was still being made semi-secretly — and it is a multi-region South Australian Shiraz, built for warmth and generosity. Dark plum, chocolate, sweet spice, a soft plush middle.
Penfolds Shiraz Coonawarra Bin 128 ($27.99) is its single-region counterpart from Coonawarra, six hundred kilometres south on a strip of red soil over limestone. Same grape, same house, completely different wine: cooler, tighter, more black pepper and cassis leaf than plum jam, with a line of acid down the middle. If you've read our piece on how much Australian Shiraz changes over one hour's drive, this pair is the same lesson inside one producer's range.
Penfolds Shiraz Grenache Old Vine Bin 138 ($22.99) breaks the grape rule and is worth knowing for it — old-vine Barossa Shiraz, Grenache and Mataro, which is to say a Barossa take on a southern Rhône blend. Lifted, red-fruited, spicier and lighter on its feet than either Shiraz above.
Rule two: a leading digit often means the barrel programme
The 7-series Cabernets are where the numbering gets genuinely informative. Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Bin 707 ($320.99) is the flagship, named for the Boeing 707 — the wine was released in 1964, the year the 707 became the first Qantas jet flying people into Australia. It is matured in new American oak and built on the same uncompromising scale as Grange.
Penfolds Bin 704 Cabernet Sauvignon ($87.99) is the wine most people don't know exists. It is the 707's counterpart made specifically for the North American market — same varietal ambition, different fruit sourcing and a gentler oak regime, at roughly a quarter of the price. If you want to understand what the 707 is doing without spending three hundred dollars, this is the honest shortcut.
Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon ($78.99) is the everyday Cabernet of the range and, to a lot of drinkers, the best-balanced wine Penfolds makes. Blackcurrant, bay leaf, fine dusty tannin, oak that supports rather than announces itself. It is often described as Bin 707's more reasonable sibling, which is fair.
Rule three: 389 is the one to understand first
Penfolds Cabernet Shiraz Bin 389 ($69.99) is the most important number on the shelf, and not because it's the most expensive. It is a South Australian Cabernet–Shiraz blend matured in the same barrels that held the previous vintage of Grange — which is why it has been nicknamed "Baby Grange" for decades.
That detail matters more than it sounds. Those barrels are American oak, already seasoned by a year of Grange, so they give 389 structure and sweet spice without the raw sawmill edge of brand-new wood. The result is the house style in miniature: dark fruit, mocha, firm tannin, and a twenty-year cellar life on a wine you can buy without a conversation.
If you buy exactly one Bin wine to learn what Penfolds is about, buy this one.
Penfolds Bin 600 Cabernet Shiraz ($59.99) is the newer sibling and a different experiment — a Cabernet Shiraz matured in French oak rather than American, which pulls the whole wine toward graphite and dried herb and away from mocha. Tasted next to 389 it is the clearest demonstration of what a barrel choice actually does.
What about the bottles with no number?
Penfolds also sells wines that carry a name instead of a Bin, and the distinction is real: the named ranges are made in much larger volume, released younger, and priced to be drunk this weekend.
Penfolds Shiraz Cabernet Koonunga Hill ($11.99) is the entry point — the classic Australian Shiraz Cabernet blend, soft and fruit-driven, and the cheapest way into the house style. Penfolds Max Cabernet Shiraz Blend ($19.99) sits a step up with a bit more structure, and Penfolds Cabernet Sauvignon Thomas Hyland ($14.99) is the varietal Cabernet at the same tier. None of them are trying to be cellar wines, and that is the point.
One more that confuses people: Penfolds Grandfather Rare Tawny Port ($88.99) carries a name, not a Bin, and isn't a table wine at all — it's a fortified tawny in the Australian tradition, aged on average over two decades. Nutty, treacly, and a genuinely great match for a blue cheese.
The cheat sheet
| Bin | Grape | Sourcing | In one line |
|---|---|---|---|
| 128 | Shiraz | Coonawarra, single region | The cool, peppery, tight one |
| 138 | Shiraz Grenache Mataro | Barossa old vines | The lifted, spicy, Rhône-ish one |
| 28 | Shiraz | Multi-region South Australia | The warm, plush original |
| 600 | Cabernet Shiraz | South Australia, French oak | 389's graphite-and-herb cousin |
| 389 | Cabernet Shiraz | Ex-Grange American oak | "Baby Grange" — start here |
| 407 | Cabernet Sauvignon | South Australia | The best-balanced everyday Cabernet |
| 704 | Cabernet Sauvignon | North American release | The 707 idea, a quarter of the price |
| 707 | Cabernet Sauvignon | New American oak, flagship | The Grange-scale Cabernet |
How to buy against this
If you're curious: Penfolds Cabernet Shiraz Bin 389 ($69.99) — the house style, cellarable, no ceremony required.
If you want the cheapest real Bin wine: Penfolds Shiraz Grenache Old Vine Bin 138 ($22.99).
If you want to run an experiment: buy Bin 28 and Bin 128 together. Same grape, same producer, 600km apart. It is the clearest single-evening lesson in Australian terroir you can buy.
If you're buying a gift: Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon ($78.99).
Worth knowing that Penfolds is not the whole story on the shelf. Mollydooker Shiraz The Boxer ($27.99), Pramie Shiraz Schild Estate ($64.99) and Koomilya Shiraz ($58.99) are all in our Australian wine collection and all make the case for their regions differently.
Pick a number
Browse the full Australian wine collection, or go by grape: the Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon collections both run well beyond Australia. And if you want the regional groundwork first, start with Barossa vs. McLaren Vale.
