This Hickinbotham Vineyard Trueman Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 is irrepressibly fine wine. The Porsche 911 of the McLaren Vale Cabernet world. And not just 4S – this is Turbo level.

Actually, I watched a flyover video of the Hickinbotham Vineyard after tasting this. My interest was piqued, on the hunt for more, the rhetorical question of why and how floating around inside my head. And there, as the drone flew over the dam (at about the 2 minute mark), with the contour plantings and the gumtrees dotting the hills, it all clicks into place. A speccy vineyard,  informed winemaking (hello Pete Fraser & Chris Carpenter), uncompromised quality.

This Cabernet is a reflection of it all. A gloriously ambitious, full-tilt Australian red of power and sophistication, its cues clearly coming from Napa (or at least I think so), but the expensive and delicious Napa mode rather than the tacky/overdone/15% alcohol/$250 Merlot one.

Matured for 15 months in 75% new Bordeaux coopered barrels. Trueman is an oaky wine. But sexy oak. The type of oak that you need to write big cheques for every year. The oak that, when you have fruit power, just folds in as another layer. Cool, ripe, sophisticated, classy Cab with no sharp bits, fine tannins, the cocoa powder oak woven through nose and palate. Contextually, it’s more Margaret River than Coonawarra, more Napa than Bordeaux, and coiffed and finely tannic and bold all the way.

Very very good.

Best drinking: now to whenever. 19/20, 96/100. 14%, $75. Would I buy it? Yes.