97 POINTS
Huon Hooke - The Real Review
Deep, intense, youthful red/purple colour, the bouquet gorgeously loaded with blue and black fruit aromas, blackberry, blackcurrant and blueberry, with a lacing of violets. The wine is full-bodied and extremely elegant, with perfect ripeness, beautifully modulated fruit and tannins, and subtle oak handling. A thoroughly delicious cabernet, accessible right now but with the potential to mature gracefully for many years. Winemaker Chris Carpenter thinks this is his best cabernet yet. (2650 cases made)
96 POINTS
Jane Faulkner - Halliday's Wine Companion
Hand-picked, destemmed but whole berries, open fermented on skins 18 days, basket-pressed, only free-run juice, new and 1 year old Bordeaux barrels, aged 15 months. It's tempting to pour a glass immediately and savour it, for everything from the fruit, cedary oak, tannins to its acidity are in total balance.
95 POINTS
Toni Paterson MW - The Real Review
An open and slightly warming aroma with cranberry, redcurrant and rhubarb aromatics. The palate has excellent density on the front and mid-palate, and the length is impressive. Fine tannins are abundant, and the wine has a long cellaring life ahead of it.
A fresh and fragrant cabernet with violets and dark rose-like floras, cassis and blueberries. There is also a decent serving of spicy oak in the mix. The palate is smoothly arranged on sheets of formidably strong tannins, which are carried seamlessly into the finish. A stunning cabernet. Best from 2022. Screw cap.
Juicy and vibrant, showing terrific purity to the raspberry and black cherry flavors at the polished and refined core, with supple tannins and details of Earl Grey tea, violet and toasted cumin. Impressive for the seamless harmony and the creamy texture, this shows a tug of grip from the tannins on the finish. Drink now through 2035. 2,650 cases made, 1,209 cases imported.
94 POINTS
Joe Czerwinski - Wine Advocate
The inky purple 2016 Trueman Cabernet Sauvignon is a super effort. It boasts intense, classic aromas of pencil shavings and cassis on the nose, then delivers rich waves of velvety but structured fruit on the full-bodied palate. If there's any complaint, it's that it's perhaps a bit too monolithic, but it's a young wine and should add layers of complexity given enough time in the cellar. It's not unapproachable now, but it probably won't fully hit its stride for at least five years and then be drinkable for at least a decade after that.
93 POINTS
Mike Bennie - The Wine Front
Tasted alongside Cullen Vanya 2012, Mount Mary Quintet 2015, Yarra Yering Dry Red No.1 2015, Woodlands Heather Jean 2010, Penley Estate Helios 2016, Balnaves The Tally 2010, Wirra Wirra Dead Ringer 2015 – stiff competition. It certainly meant a pace was set. This quite distinct from most of the more ‘restrained’ wines in that mix, overt, bright, sweeter fruit, less tannin, one could say. This is the ranking for me – Cullen Vanya 2012, Mount Mary Quintet 2015, Yarra Yering Dry Red No.1 2015, Woodlands Heather Jean 2010, Penley Estate Helios 2016, Hickinbotham Trueman 2016, Balnaves The Tally 2010, Wirra Wirra Dead Ringer 2015, with YY and Woodlands very close to equal, and let’s say a little gap after Penley to the next three. That does say a lot about the pedigree of all the wines, however.
Has this sweet, candied fruit character rolling through the wine, like jubes or something similar, but also let’s chime in with black jelly beans. Scents show some savouriness, earth, clove, dried leaves, but liquorice and blackcurrant essence is there too. There’s a good swish of grippy, fine, stony tannins but that sweeter fruit character is the main program. Also, mint, green herb, saline flavours. It’s long, medium weight, fresh feeling in character. It’s a pretty cabernet.
Oz Clarke: Very unusual mix of marzipan, dry chocolate and blackcurrant. It is quite tannic, but does have some violet scent and sap to lift it.
Sarah Jane Evans: Textbook aromas: blackcurrant with a hint of green pepper. This is a modern and glossy approach to Cab. Fleshy blackcurrants and a firm undertone of cedar.
Tina Gellie: Quite a jammy Cab, but still has that cassis and green pepper note, plus soft vanilla oak and grippy tannins.
Recommended by Huon Hooke
Judges: Oz Clarke, Sarah Jane Evans MW, Tina Gellie
