2019 Hickinbotham Clarendon Vineyard The Nest Cabernet Franc

96 POINTS

Ned Goodwin - Halliday Wine Companion

Hand picked 22nd March. Destemmed and whole-berry sorted, gentle crush. Cold soak and wild ferment. Pumped over daily, 15 days on skins. Basket pressed with light pressings included with free-run juice. Racked and returned twice during 15 months' maturation in fine-grained French oak (50% new). The quality of fruit, tannic precision and apposite application of oak under this banner are unequalled in Australia. Nobody else gets it quite as right. The budget and gear help, yet it is the viticulture and sites that are the foundation for everything else. Franc from a warm place, salvaging its sappy cavalcade of tannin, crunch and floral lift. Redcurrant, spearmint and chilli powder lace a finely tuned finish marked by a flourish of garden herb. Kerpow!

93 POINTS

Campbell Mattinson - The Wine Front

A nest of cabernet franc. Strong fruit, strong tannin and strong oak. It’s balanced within its own world but this is a heavy hitter. A big serve of resiny vanilla, mint, chocolate, steel and redcurrant, with plum notes drenching the palate. Dry, rusty herbs, the leftovers from a couple of summers ago combine with florals, old too, dried too. Less oak would have been good but this is a wine set up to age. Strong arms, this one. Ropes of tannin territory.

92 POINTS

Christina Pickard - Wine Enthusiast

Mint sauce and tobacco and white pepper underlay plump plum and cherry fruit on this Cab Franc, which vibes more Bordeaux than Loire. There's a lick of polished vanillin oak present, too. Tannins are distinctively textured, raspy and spicy, weaving through the plush red fruit. Well structured, this could be drunk now with a roast leg of lamb or cellared through to 2030.