Hickinbotham Clarendon Trueman Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 14% 750ML

Hickinbotham Clarendon Trueman Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 14% 750ML

TASTING NOTES

PALATE

The 2022 Trueman reveals blueberry, sage, dark chocolate, black olives, currant and savory notes with refined tannins.

WINEMAKERS COMMENTS

Hickinbotham Clarendon Vineyard covers a steep cut of country from the ridgetops above the village of Clarendon to the Onkaparinga River in the gorge below. Since its establishment in 1971, the Hickinbotham Vineyard has become a part of Australia’s wine heritage, supplying fruit to produce many of Australia’s greatest wines. Breathing new life into this historic vineyard, winemakers Chris Carpenter and Peter Fraser are forging a new era of Hickinbotham’s prestigious legacy: building upon and honouring the vineyard’s acclaimed pedigree.

VINIFICATION

Hand-picked, destemmed, sorted and gently crushed to open top fermenters. Pumped over daily with a minimum of 21 days on skins. Basket pressed with light pressings included in free run directly to 60% new and used French oak barriques. Blended after 14 months and matured for a further 4 months in French oak before bottling. Bottled December 2023.

DESCRIPTION
COUNTRY: Australia
STATE: South Australia
REGION: McLaren Vale
VARIETY: Cabernet Sauvignon
ALCOHOL VOL.: 14.0
VINTAGE: 2022
CLOSURE: Screwcap
VOLUME: 750

Reviews:

Cassandra Charlick, Wine Pilot - 96 Pts

Abundant on the nose, this is everything one hopes for from Cabernet Sauvignon. An envelopment of violet and red berried florals, crushed slate, black plum skin, tightly woven wild spice, coffee smoke and a brush of charred cedar forest. Swiftly followed by a rush of supple, firm and tongue-coating tannins, lifted with acrobatic acidity, seemingly effortless and nimble at the highest of heights. This is mid-weight, yet there’s a freshness and delicacy here that belies that. A wine of structure, with beautiful fruit cloaked delicately around a long-lived frame. Elegant, classy, and finely structured. This is a brilliant Cabernet. McLaren Cabernet should get more of a look in if this is an example of what can be achieved.

Shanteh Wale, Wine Pilot - 96 Pts

Handpicked, destemmed to open top fermenters. 21 days on skins basket pressed to 60% new French oak barriques for 14 months, blended and matured for a further 4 months in French oak. This wine has always had me, at ‘hello’ it’s partly due to its blue tinges of blueberry and lilac but mostly because the wine draws you in, rather than smacks you over the head with its Cabernet -esqueness. Yet all those markers are here too. Blackberries baking in a pie, sage and mulberry. Oak plays its integral role as you might expect it would with clove, mahogany and cinnamon quill. Lets face it, the wines screams pedigree and expertise, Hickinbotham knows Cabernet and Cabernet knows them. Here is demonstrated beautifully and is drinking like a dream on release and will reward time and time again in 5, 10, 15 years. Drink with a scotch fillet so supreme you can cut it with a butter knife.

Marcus Ellis, Halliday Wine Companion - 96 Pts

From the original 1971 contour-planted vines and a 2002 block; crushed to open fermenters; a minimum of 21 days on skins; matured in French barriques (60% new) for a total of 18 months. It’s a cabernet of deep and brooding properties but not girth or heft. Indeed, there is considerable refinement here. Cedar and currant, ripe mulberry, cassis, plum and olive, the pitch of leafiness keenly judged, with proper ripeness achieved at modest alcohol. An equally refined but effective line of tannins draws effortlessly long, with oak a key player but stylish about it. An excellent release.

Ned Goodwin, JamesSuckling.com - 96 Pts

An exceptional cabernet of flare and precision. Dried sage, bay leaves and a smear of black olives serve as a savory balance to the wave of currants and mint, all riveted to refined tannins and a briny maritime freshness. The more I spend time in the Vale the more I realize just how good cabernet can be. A leader of the pack. Drinkable now, but best from 2030. Screw cap.

Tom Kline, Wine Pilot - 95 Pts

Elegant from the outset, this has notes of pimiento, bay leaf, subtle balsamic, blackcurrant, decaying leaves, plum and cedar. There’s some subtle earth and flickers of graphite with air, glimmers of dried herbs, and an emergent mineral finesse. Very ambrosial as it all clicks into place. The elegance theme plays through to the palate, which is medium-bodied and gorgeously restrained. Blackcurrant, autumn leaves, plum, graphite, bay leaf, fine cedar, a glimmer of mint. It glides through the mouth with poise and finesse before fine-grained tannins and cooling acidity pull it all to long and elegant length. Yes, elegance is the word, though it’s joined by restraint, complexity and all-round class.

Christina Pickard, Wine Enthusiast - 95 Pts

True to form, Trueman offers up all the minty, pencil lead, savory dried herb, dark-chocolate and blackberry goodness we’ve come to know and love from top South Aussie Cab. There’s power aplenty in the mouth but feels like it’s always in control, never boisterous—ironfist-in-velvet-glove territory; the savory, chalk dust tannins framing; the acidity freshening. Drink now with a rare steak and garlicky mushrooms at hand, or cellar for 15 years. Hickinbotham.