Hickinbotham Clarendon The Nest Cabernet Franc 2021

95 POINTS

Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

Chris Carpenter and Pete Fraser; the Burt Bacharach and Hal David of wine. Chris does the Bordeaux varieties, and Pete the Rhone. I say a little prayer for both of them. Anyway, what the world needs now, is more excellent Cabernet Franc. Blackcurrant, dark raspberry, a little dried flower and herb perfume, mint, iodine, creamy chocolate and spiced cedar oak, also a dash of paprika. It’s dense and packed with graphite tannin, a lovely ferrous edge to it, tobacco, red and black fruit, deep and rich, but also fragrant to close with chocolate and pencilly tannin. Serious wine here, the highlight being the integration of (plentiful) oak and fruit, and a superb muscular tannin profile. Touch and go for 96 points really.