Hickinbotham Brooks Road Shiraz 2018
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#49 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2021
Named for the street on which the vineyard is located, Brooks Road Shiraz exhibits the compelling single site character of the vineyard. 2018 Brooks Road exhibits the compelling dynamic between savory and fruit flavors which is textbook Shiraz from Clarendon. Sweet blueberry and rich red fruits interlace with notes of clove and menthol. The palate is expansive but pure finesses with a beautifully balanced acidity leading to a silky finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A rich, succulent mix of dark chocolate, spiced plum, wild blackberry and black licorice notes. Showcases both power and elegance, with chai, cigar box, violets and dried sage notes, velvety and generous, on the long, generous finish. Drink now through 2035. 1,900 cases made, 370 cases imported.
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Wine Enthusiast
Where the cool 2017 brought increased elegance to Hickinbotham's muscular reds, this vintage returns to the powerful expression of warmer years. A big wine it may be, with a nose of strawberry and cherry preserves, mint, medicinal herbs and a toasty, vanillin underbelly, but it's also precise and site expressive. Tannins are fine yet powerful, and the oak is present, but this is a baby, worthy of many years in the cellar. Drink 2023–2035.
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James Suckling
A striking wine for its extreme depth, as well as freshness. Ripe dark plums and blackberries bathe the nose and palate. This is lead in a fuller-bodied direction and makes a very youthful, bold and stoic impression on the palate. Fine now, but better in three to four years.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The emphasis at Hickinbotham is on Bordeaux varieties, but the Shiraz is a sleeper—and well priced for the quality. The 2018 Brooks Road Shiraz includes 10% whole clusters and was matured in 30% new French oak. There was one new foudre, while the rest of the wine aged in 300-liter hogsheads. The nose is marked by scents of raspberries and vanilla, with some floral, herbal notes and hints of barrel char. In the mouth, it's medium to full-bodied and mouthwatering, with a long, silky-textured finish. A completely satisfying drink, it's rich without being at all over the top.
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First planted in 1971 to dry-farmed Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, Hickinbotham Clarendon Vineyard sits in the hills of Clarendon, at the upper limit of Australia’s revered McLaren Vale winegrowing region. The vineyard historically produced fruit for many of Australia’s iconic producers like Penfolds, Hardy’s, and Clarendon Hills, and was not bottled under its own label until 2012.
The confluence of the hills, ocean and ancient earth – the vineyard sits atop a 75 million-year-old geology – has a strong influence on the style of wines made here. Under the helm of winemakers Christopher Carpenter and Peter Fraser – and viticulturer Michael Lane – Hickinbotham Clarendon Vineyard employs organic and biodynamic farming practices to produce a range of highly distinctive and powerful red wines. Its flagship wine, The Peake, is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz – a style that embraces a famous part of Australia’s winemaking history. It is complemented by a highly acclaimed lineup that has garnered attention from global critics and drawn eyes to Clarendon as a region producing some of Australia’s most celebrated wines.
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.