2022 Hickinbotham Brooks Road Shiraz

Brooks Road is a Shiraz of intensity and polish, offering a more lifted, savoury expression of McLaren Vale from the elevated slopes of Clarendon.

The site sits above the Onkaparinga Gorge, not far from the Adelaide Hills, and the wine often shows a cooler, more perfumed edge compared to the darker, denser styles found further south. The 2022 vintage plays right into this signature - there’s plush black fruit, but also violet, tapenade, spice and a fine-boned structure that speaks of place.

There’s plenty of presence and power here, but it’s carried on a frame of silky, well-integrated tannins. Winemakers Chris Carpenter and Peter Fraser employ whole bunches and large format oak to enhance the savoury dimension without sacrificing purity or fruit definition.

Built to go the distance but already showing remarkable clarity and balance, Brooks Road continues to prove why this vineyard has been prized for decades.

96 points
“It’s a wine of intensity, verve and impressive harmony, with an elegant sheen of oak tastefully applied."
- Marcus Ellis (Halliday Wine Companion)

96 points
“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... A bucket list pairing would be a hearty pork and mushroom pie with gravy poured down the centre funnel. ”
- Shanteh Wale (Wine Pilot)

95 points
“A classy, polished, consummately detailed, full-bodied shiraz. Not an ounce of flab or extraneous sweetness on its refined structural bones.”
- Ned Goodwin (jamessuckling.com)