Review: Hickinbotham Trueman Cabernet Sauvignon 2021. Napa via McLaren Vale,

To cap off a few days of McLaren Vale delights, along lobs the latest Hickinbotham reds.

I’m ok with this.

The Trueman Cabernet is often my favourite of this range, with a mode of opulence and varietal charisma, with this Hickinbotham Trueman Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 right on form. It’s a bit cliche to say that winemaker Chris Carpenter (who is California-based and flies out a few times a year to handle the Bordeaux varieties at Hickinbotham) crafts this in a Napa-style, but gee there is a certain American generosity here.

Part of the recipe behind this wine (besides the 1971 planted, dry-grown vineyard) is the oak, which tastes like Bordeaux oak, with that cedary, lead pencil and vanilla low toast vibe. It works here to tone down the Cabernet’s berry fruit into something more savoury and ultimately classy. It’s still a bold Cabernet of dark berry fruit but with dusty mint edges and a certain mediumness to the palate. I really like it. I like the balance, the assured power and tannins of it all. Only going to get better too.

Best drinking: now to twenty years easy. 18.5/20, 94/100. 14%, $90. Hickinbotham website. Would I buy it? Worth a few glasses.