Hickinbotham Clarendon Vineyard Brooks Road Shiraz 2020 1.5L

Since its establishment in 1971, the Hickinbotham vineyard has supplied fruit to many of Australia’s greatest ever wines. Now under the control of winemaker Peter Fraser (Yangarra), the wines under the Hickinbotham label represent a new high water mark. From the original 1971 plantings, this is a big rich style of shiraz, which will age incredibly well. Named for the street on which the vineyard is located, Brooks Road Shiraz exhibits the compelling single site character of the vineyard. It marries red, blue and black fruit aromas with perfumed and savoury elements and captures the full flavour of Shiraz with deeply ripe plum and blackberry fruits. The powerful and defined tannins are balanced with even-paced acid structure which accentuates length of flavour and delivers a sense of sustained purity on the palate. 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, James Halliday Wine Companion, 95 Points The Finer Details Style – Red Wine Varietal – Shiraz Country – Australia Region – McLaren Vale, South Australia Vintage – 2020 Bottle Size – 1.5L ABV – 14.5%