2017 Trueman Cabernet Sauvignon
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Tasting notes
Full bottle 1,456 g. Hickinbotham belongs to the Jackson Family group of estates. Made by winemakers Chris Carpenter and Peter Fraser. 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. 2017 was a cool vintage in McLaren Vale. Hand-picked fruit. 100% destemmed, lightly crushed, open-top fermenters. Four days of cold soak. Daily pumpovers, 18 days on skins. Basket pressed with light pressings added back to the free-run juice. Aged in new and old bordeaux barrels with two rackings over a period of 15 months. TA 6.4 g/l, pH 3.65. 31,200 bottles. Quite a treat to taste a McLaren Vale Cab like this one, which is just beginning to shift and settle into the mellow comfort of maturity. Red plums and black pu-erh tea, roasted-bone-marrow earthiness and sun-dried-tomato sweetness. Camphor notes of freshness. The tannins a swag of heavy silk. Autumnal leafiness shaping the finish. (TC)
Critic scores
Average Score
Jancis Robinson MW
Tamlyn Currin, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
Deep ruby. A highly perfumed bouquet evokes cassis, cherry and blueberry, and smoke and vanilla nuances build in the glass. Sappy and precise on the palate, offering appealingly sweet dark fruit and floral pastille flavors that show liqueur-like depth and surprising energy. Closes on a gently tannic note, with excellent clarity, repeating spiciness and strong, spicy cling. Raised in new and used French oak barrels for 15 months.
Full cork-stoppered bottle 1,450 g - too heavy! From Hickinbotham's Clarendon Vineyard established in 1971 and a coolish year. Hand picked between 5 and 12 April, 100% destemmed, four-day cold soak, at least 18 days on skins, basket pressed with light pressings added to free-run, racked twice during 15 months' ageing in a selections of old and new Bordeaux barrels. 2,600 cases made. Deep lustrous garnet. Pure Cabernet, quite leafy, notes but with a real undertow of ripe fruit. Enough acidity and very little tannin in evidence. Firm. Pretty dry finish. Very Cabernet. (JR)
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.