Winemaker Notes
2017 was a cooler year in McLaren Vale. The carryover from the 2016 rains into a perfect spring and then a cooler ripening season was ideal for Bordeaux varieties that need time on the vine to develop phenolic flavor rather than sugar, while maintaining acidity and structure. The 2017 Cabernet Sauvignon shines this year with dusted cocoa, blackberry, anise; a middle body that is velvet to the touch with a tannin backbone that carries this wine for minutes after you have swallowed.
Vegan
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Attractive cassis and ripe purple fruit with a wealth of blueberries and hints of cola nuts. The palate has a juicy feel with exceptional depth, length and a complete tannin texture. Really seamless and long. Excellent cabernet. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2017 Trueman Cabernet Sauvignon is pretty classically made and styled, with notes of cassis, cedar and vanilla on the nose. Befitting the cooler vintage, it's a bit more medium-bodied and streamlined than some other years, with ample acidity and firm tannins on the crisp, tangy finish. It's a structural wine, rather than a generous, plush one, that's for sure, but it should come good in a few years' time.
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Wine Spectator
Dark fruit flavors are fleshy and dense, juicy and appealing, with a floral note adding aromatic lift to the details of spice, tobacco and toasted herb. Sticky toffee pudding and toasted cedary elements linger on the finish. Drink now through 2030.
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Wine & Spirits
The Jackson family of Sonoma bought the Hickinbotham family’s vineyard in the hills above McLaren Vale in 2012. Chris Carpenter, one of the group’s lead winemakers, now travels to Clarendon to make the wines with Charlie Seppelt. This is a floral cabernet with a tight structure that keeps giving juicy red berry flavors. The fruit darkens with air and the florals deepen to violet scents, all of it saturated with oak richness.
A noble variety bestowed with both power and concentration, Cabernet Sauvignon enjoys success all over the globe, its best examples showing potential to age beautifully for decades. Cabernet Sauvignon flourishes in Bordeaux's Medoc where it is often blended with Merlot and smaller amounts of some combination of Cabernet Franc, Malbecand Petit Verdot. In the Napa Valley, ‘Cab’ is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious, age-worthy and sought-after “cult” wines. Somm Secret—DNA profiling in 1997 revealed that Cabernet Sauvignon was born from a spontaneous crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc in 17th century southwest France.
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.