Winemaker Notes
This Shiraz shows the characters this vineyard has displayed since the start, but perhaps in a more elegant, harmonious and balanced form. Its consistency is comforting and reassuring, buttressed by blue and black fruit notes throughout. It is readily enjoyable but has all the structure, acid and tannin to offer decades of rewards from cellaring.
Vegan
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Polished and elegant, with refined raspberry and wild strawberry flavors and an edge of matcha. Velvety tannins and bass notes of sage, cedar and black pepper showcase a wine of power and restraint. Drink now through 2028. 1,300 cases made, 235 cases imported.
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Wine Enthusiast
Hickinbotham’s renowned vineyards once supplied fruit to high-end Aussie wines like Penfolds Grange. Now flexing muscles under its own label, this vintage was made by Charlie Seppelt and Napa Valley winemaker Chris Carpenter. The Napa influence is evident via opulent chocolaty, vanilla and milky coffee notes, alongside ripe cassis, plums and earthy, woody spice. The palate is more structured than the nose suggests, the silky fruit supported by muscular, tight-grained savory tannins, suggesting this wine will cellar nicely until 2029 and likely well beyond.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
Known for opulent red wines with intense power and concentration, McLaren Vale is home to perhaps the most “classic” style of Australian Shiraz. Vinified on its own or in Rhône Blends, these hot-climate wines are deeply colored and high in extract with signature hints of dark chocolate and licorice. Cabernet Sauvignon is also produced in a similar style.
Whites, often made from Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc tend to be opulent and full of tropical, stone and citrus fruit.