It would be fascinating to put this Hickinbotham Trueman Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 up against 707 or the like. It sure has the guts. An absolute top shelf McLaren Vale Cabernet, and structured to last generations (and nowhere near ready). In fact, that readiness counts against it – it’s a monster.
Oh and do you like the new labels? I think I like the old ones tbh. But that might be a cognitive bias thing. Speaking of cognitive bias, I struggled to rate this for philosophical reasons. Do you call this a Top Gold (18.7/20, 95/100) scoring wine, because of the impeccable structure signalling what it will become? Or do you go a little lower, because the oak is such a dominant force rather than an expression of fruit and terroir?
The winemaking, as usual, is ace. Sourced from 3 blocks on the Hickinbotham property, with the bulk yielding at less than 1.5t/acre. The juice spends 17 days on skins minimum, bottled October 2020 (so let’s say 12-15 months in oak minimum). Numbers, for the interested: pH 3.6 TA 6.4g/l.
Classy oak is indeed a potent feature here. Dark berries meeting coffeed oak. It’s deep, dark and very finely polished too. Too much? It’s hard to argue with the perfection of the palate otherwise – coiffed and ultra-fine, with the most perfect tannins. But I’m torn. I see oak on nose, on the palate and through the tannins, while the Shiraz is just glorious from the get-go. Just a teensy bit warm on the finish it is too.
Too young by half, but the perfection of the body is excellent. The plus signs couldn’t be more important.
Hickinbotham Trueman Cabernet Sauvignon 2019. 18.5/20, 94/100+. 14.5%, $75. Hickinbotham Vineyard website. Would I buy it? Yep.
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4 Comments
Very good review Andrew. I prefer the lower score with the plus rather than those that tend to go large.
I expect plenty of people will try this and think I’m underscoring it too…
Hi Andrew,
I initially bought a bottle of ‘18 Trueman and couldn’t get back to the retailer quick enough to buy a 6 pack.
I’m a little torn after reading some of the various reviews, yours included of the ‘19, as I’m thinking it’s possibly too big in a variety of areas?
In particular the fact you’ve mentioned the “warmth”
Q: Do you believe the structure and nuances of the wine will have no problems absorbing (if that’s the right word to use here) the warmth you mentioned in time?
I have experienced in the past, as some wines age the fruit receded to leave a bomb of abv……….yuck! Pretty expensive drain cleaner !!
I loved that 2018 Trueman. Spectacular wine.
For mine, this is such a high-quality wine but I couldn’t avoid the sensation that it was a little overt. Which I didn’t see in the Shiraz. To answer your question, yes, it’s going to be absorbed in and the warmth isn’t enough to derail things. I still prefer the Shiraz. I have the Peake on the bench too – will be interesting to see in context.