2022 Hickinbotham Clarendon The Peake Cabernet Shiraz, McLaren Vale

Very harmonious nose which doesn't shout either cabernet or shiraz. It's balanced and elegant, with complexity yet promising much more detail if cellared a while. The tannins are fine, firm and long, running the full length of the palate, the shiraz tannins complementing the cabernet tannins. Such an impressive wine, but will deliver even more pleasure in the future. Drink to 2045.

97 points Huon Hooke for The Real Review, August 2025

52/48% cabernet sauvignon/shiraz from 1971 contour-planted vines; cabernet matured for 15 months in Bordeaux barriques, the shiraz in one- to two-year-old French and Austrian puncheons for eight months, then 10 months in a French oak foudre. The classic Australian blend rendered by the twin powers of winemakers Peter Fraser and Chris Carpenter, with shiraz and cabernet respectively. Named after John Peake, who established the first vineyard in Clarendon, and is also fittingly the peak of the range. The melding of the two varieties here is superb, a seamless intertwining, with shiraz gently flexing and cabernet calmly tensioning. A sophisticated note of oak seasons with ground coffee, clove and allspice over black and blue fruits, the wine building impressively with air. Excellent. Drink to 2036.

97 points Marcus Ellis for Halliday Wine Companion, August 2024

Ink black core, deep ruby rim. Blackberry bramble and black olive tapenade aromas. Big and dense, black fruit carries lashings of concentration and density then layered over it we see black olive, graphite and mocha complexities. Tannins are prodigious, as required by the fruit intensity: they work hard and succeed in creating balance and tension, drying the fantastically long finish. Drink to 2045.

96 points Stuart Knox for The Real Review, February 2025

The 2022 The Peake Cabernet Shiraz comprises 52% Cabernet Sauvignon and the balance Shiraz. The vintage was a lovely one, slightly cooler and wetter than 2021, and the wines have been excellent across the board. Here, the aromas lead with pomegranate and red apple, cocoa and bay leaf, licorice and tapenade. In the mouth, the wine is dense and powerful, with a firm base of tannin and a cool graphite-laden finish. This is a lovely wine here. It's lighter than the 2021 in fruit density, which is in line with the vintage. It's very good. Drink to 2049.

95 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, February 2026

A full-bodied cabernet of precision and class. The results are more approachable, fragrant and exquisite than warmer years. Perhaps the tannins are not quite as refined and resolved. Yet the pimento lift to the aromas riffs on spruce, a smattering of garden herbs, green olive brine, red currants and pickled cherries. It has an immediacy and great gusto. I'd drink this across a shorter-term window. Drink now or hold.

94 points James Suckling, February 2026

This wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz fruit sourced from vines planted in 1971 and represents the best of Hickinbotham’s vintage through barrel selection.

The Hickinbotham Vineyard is one of McLaren Vale’s most distinctive sites, and a source for many of the region’s finest wines long before its name appeared on its own label in 2012.

The 164-hectare property has 38 hectares of vines planted from 1971, dry-farmed with organic and biodynamic practices. Featuring diverse soils and aspects at an elevation of up to 315 meters, the site enjoys the excellent ventilation with breezes from the hills and the sea alike that Clarendon is known for.

Winemaker Chris Carpenter and vineyard manager Cliff Wickman are the current guardians of this special vineyard majority-owned by California-based Jackson Family Estates.