Personalised Hickinbotham Clarendon Vineyards Brooks Road Shiraz 14.5% 750ml

Personalised Hickinbotham Clarendon Vineyards Brooks Road Shiraz 14.5% 750ml

Reviews:

Wine Spectator - 95 Pts

Impressive, rich and fleshy, with blackberry, blueberry and huckleberry notes at the core, but shows tremendous depth, concentration and polish. Offers accents of bittersweet chocolate, espresso, salted caramel and rosemary, backed by velvety tannins on the finish, with the flavors gaining extra torque and momentum. Drink now through 2038. 1,285 cases made, 396 cases imported.

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com - 95 Pts

This has such effortless depth and impressive measure. It delivers aromas of ripe red and dark plums with slate and blackberries, framed in fresh, subtly spicy and cedary oak. The palate is packed with ripe red plums, red cherries and mulberries, as well as deeper blueberries and darker plums. The power is innate and the palate so focused. Elegant and pure. Drink over the next decade or more.

MaryAnn Worobiec, Wine Spectator - 95 Pts

Impressive, rich and fleshy, with blackberry, blueberry and huckleberry notes at the core, but shows tremendous depth, concentration and polish. Features accents of bittersweet chocolate, espresso, salted caramel and rosemary, with velvety tannins on the finish, with the flavors gaining extra torque and momentum. Drink now through 2038. 1,285 cases made, 396 cases imported.

Andrew Graham, Australian Wine Review - 95 Pts

Enter, the latest majestic McLaren Vale red the Hickinbotham stable, the Hickinbotham Clarendon Vineyard Brooks Road Shiraz 2019.

For anyone who loves Penfolds Shiraz, this is the alternate choice – a McLaren Vale red that has the grandiosity and Penfoldian lavishness, but with authenticity and a sense of place.

Notionally, Peter Fraser makes this wine, while Chris Carpenter makes the Bordeaux varieties. Of course, Peter is across both given that Chris is Napa-based, but this Shiraz still feels different (and less oaky) compared to the Cabernet (for example).

The recipe for success here is undeniable. Sourced from the original ‘71 plantings on the Clarendon vineyard plus some 2002 plantings. Gentle maceration, 20 days on skins. 6 months on lees in 30% new French oak puncheons. Then a further 6 months in a combination of old, large foudre and an 18hl concrete egg (numbers: TA 5.9g/L pH 3.6).

Ultimately, it all leads to an incredibly polished, ultra-classy modern McLaren Vale Shiraz. Oak plays an important bit part in this wine, giving the finishing touches to the texture. But that’s not discounting the core of coffeed, richly flavoured, dark berried fruit. If I had to zone in on just one perfect component, it would have to be the texture. It had me thinking of Sassicaia, such is the unquestioned smooth-yet-forceful nature of it. Cosseting, powerful, savoury, yet incredibly rich in a fancy flourless chocolate cake fashion.

Satisfying. Balanced and wonderfully regional. The score will only go up with another few years in bottle too. Top class.

Patrick Eckel, winereviewer.com.au - 95 Pts

There is an elegance and class to this wine that puts it at the upper echelon of McLaren Vale Shiraz. Density and definition of black fruits is swept up in a moreish web of tannins and oak derived spice that brings out the milk chocolate the region is known for.

There is drying dark cherry on the mid palate that tends towards plum, milk moves to dark chocolate and finely textured spice frames the long finish. A beautifully textured wine that will live for decades.

Qwine Reviews - 95 Pts

Let's start spring with a bang! This is a brilliant McLaren Vale Shiraz. Captivating aromas from the outset, oh, I'm in love! A passage of calm washes over you. Come at me...

Red plums, blueberries and mulberries all the way - you could bathe in it. Dark chocolate is flanked with a herby factor. The oak is integrated beautifully - I feel consumed in all its glory. That drying finish just rolls along gracefully with powdery tannins the parting gift. All class. Drink to ten years+

James Halliday, Halliday Wine Companion - 95 Pts

A blend of three distinctive blocks on loams, silt and clay. No whole bunch. Gently extracted by wetting the cap and racking/returning. Circa 20 days on skins. 6 months in puncheons. 6 more in foudres and a concrete egg. A corpulent wine, lush and full. Yet there is nothing jammy about it. Eclipsed by its Bordeaux varietal siblings perhaps, but as far as warm-climate shiraz goes, this is at the apex of the qualitative totem pole. Blue fruits, violet, anise, clove and pepper grind. Some salumi, too. But the tannins are this gorgeous wine’s opus. Ned Goodwin MW