96 POINTS
Shanteh Wale - Winepilot
20% whole bunch 30% destemmed and berry sorted and 50% crushed to open top fermenters. 20 days on skins and kept on lees in 30% new French oak puncheons. A further 12 months in French and Austrian 25 hectolitre foudres. A pool of dark berries, Holly, bilberry and blackcurrant. There is a generous spread of olive tapenade that leads back around to a halo of blue tinged fruit. Prune and blueberries. Oak shows in maple and red oak, undercurrents of savoury tobacco and carob too. Just when you think this may be quite a heady wine, acidity dances in with light feet, making for a medium bodied but grainy textured drop. The Clarendon potency is all here with a nod to dried herbs and wildly fragrant spices. A complex and detailed wine that you can ponder for hours and marvel for days. Drink now or will cellar well for another 6-8 years. A bucket list pairing would be a hearty pork and mushroom pie with gravy poured down the centre funnel. Lode Pies signature Pithovier would do it justice.
96 POINTS
Marcus Ellis - Halliday Wine Companion
From the original contour planted 1971 vines; 20% whole bunches, 30% destemmed and berry sorted and 50% crushed; matured for seven months in 30% new French puncheons, the rest in one- to two-year-old oak, then racked to older French and Austrian 2500L foudre for 12 months. This is amply generous, with blackberry tart, raspberry compote, tapenade and black plum, but picked at the right time and made with a typically deft touch by Peter Fraser. It’s a wine of intensity, verve and impressive harmony, with an elegant sheen of oak tastefully applied.
Concentrated and bright in the glass, there’s plenty to unpack on the nose. Wild spice, red berry intensity, black plum skin, all wrapped in some toasty yet balanced oak, allowing the fruit brightness to shine through. A slatey minerality and dark chocolate silt jostle with anise spice-studded charcuterie. This is cracking stuff, and it should be given the combo of site and winemaking prowess of Napa legend Chris Carpenter and our own Pete Fraser. Yes, it’s still tight-knit and a rather densely fruited Shiraz, but there’s real energy and brightness at its core. Tannins are multitudinous with an al-dente chew, and acidity is fresh and lifts through the compact fruit and brambled spice. A Shiraz which straddles old and new, bold and bright. There’s so much here, be sure to decant or give it some cellar time if so desired.
By Cassandra Charlick
95 POINTS
Ned Goodwin - JamesSuckling.com
A classy, polished, consummately detailed, full-bodied shiraz. Not an ounce of flab or extraneous sweetness on its refined structural bones. Anise, blue fruit, grilled meats and mace on the finish. Tension across its classy oak and grape tannins. Drinkable now, but best from 2028.
94 POINTS
Tom Kline - Winepilot
Pink peppercorn spice melds nicely with blueberry, blackberry and blood plum fruits to start. Some time in the glass draws out an iodine-laced minerality, adding lift and further savoury appeal, along with pan juices, smoky bacon, cacao powder, dried herbs and black olive tapenade. This is very sophisticated, unfurling to reveal excellent poise and elegant complexity. At three years of age, there’s still a youthful exuberance to the palate – it’s elegant and intense with notes of plum, fine cedar, smoky bacon, cacao powder, black cherry, black olive and bitter dark chocolate. It all glides through the mouth before firm-but-fine grainy tannins anchor the wine and add textural dimension, framing it to a long finish. The bitter notes persist. This is well made, with oak present but integrated, making for a McLaren Vale Shiraz that’s true to its place while maintaining elegance and detail.
93 POINTS
Campbell Mattinson - The Wine Front
There’s excellent intensity to the fruit here and a good spread of tannin too. This is hearty fare, done well, though as much as I tried I couldn’t quite get the finish to extend into territory that would warrant higher points. Vanilla, redcurrant, toast, peppercorn and blueberry flavours roll into black olives, smoky bacon and cedar. The flavour profile is classy – and delicious – to say the least.
93 POINTS
Angus Hughson - Vinous
The 2022 Shiraz Brooks Road impresses with its style and substance. On the nose, lashings of blackberry and cherry compote aromas develop underneath meaty and spicy tones. It has a deliciously overt vibrancy and energy as it bursts with flavor, fresh acidity and powdery tannins, which build a strong, linear finish that combines to offer a strong medium-term proposition.
92 POINTS
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate
The 2022 Brooks Road Shiraz is, like all the 2022 Hickinbotham reds in this tasting, looking quite brooding and intensely oaky. However, the spicy Shiraz fruit is a breath of fresh air, with notes of fennel seed, hazelnut, black cherry, crushed rocks, pressed sandalwood (nag champa even) and ripe fig. The acidity is pronounced through the finish and leaves a tang, akin to biting into a perfectly ripe blackberry. 14% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
