97 POINTS
Shanteh Wale - Winepilot
51% Cabernet Sauvignon 49% Shiraz. Handpicked, destemmed and fermented separately and basket pressed. 17 days on skins for the Cabernet Sauvignon and matured for 15 months in Bordeaux barriques. 20 days on skins for Shiraz and barrelled down to 1-2 year old seasoned French and Austrian oak puncheons for 8 months with additional 10 months in seasoned foudre. The very finest parcels were selected and bottled. A rigorous winemaking explanation and deservedly as everything is meticulously weighted in both the vineyard and winemaking for Hickinbotham. Two worlds meet here and I’m not talking about Australia and the USA. It’s a wine that evokes both our past and future. Nostalgia is plucked from deep within with the kinship of the two varieties. Rhubarb, mulberry and red figs with an outline of blackberries and thyme. The beauty of the site plays an integral part too, providing depth and intensity of fruit and savoury coffee spice. This is a Claret that pays homage to days of old but made with oak consciousness and poise of tomorrow. The rapport between Cabernet and Shiraz is firmly established here and in drinking it, you’ll find any disagreeable thoughts put to rest, or at least till after you are done enjoying it. A truly beautiful wine. Drink now or in 10-12 years preferably with lamb backstrap with a pepper berry crust.
97 POINTS
Marcus Ellis - Halliday Wine Companion
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.
96 POINTS
Campbell Mattinson - The Wine Front
Amazing wine, deeply flavoured, raked with tannin, long, creamy and characterful. Blackcurrant, gravel, violet and bay leaf notes with a smoky, iodine-like edge. No need to prattle. This wine lays down the law, in a tannic, concentrated, balanced fashion.
51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 49% Shiraz, and an expression of Australia. Still tightly bound, yet swirl, and this releases its delights. Dark choc, cocoa, slight meatiness, red berries, plenty of dusty red earth, black fruit skin, fine spice. Energetic yet tightly knitted on the palate. There’s a freshness and vitality, though it’s currently constrained and tightly wound. The coupling of Cabernet and Shiraz tannins offers velvet-like, almost-plushness, yet fine gravelly structure stretches out long and locks the frame in place for the fruit to envelope the space it crafts. Savoury salt-crusted fermented charcuterie and bresaola. This has a mouth-coating texture yet not weighed down or clinging. Simply holding shape and masterfully crafted. Quivering acidity, ready to fly through the muscular tone, stamina and strength with oodles of concentration. By Cassandra Charlick
95 POINTS
Tom Kline - Winepilot
‘Restrained richness’ is the term that springs to mind. Savoury pan juices, iodine minerality, gravel, blood plum, bay leaf lift, whispers of clove, black pepper and blackcurrant. The fruit takes a backseat to the wine’s savouriness, but it ties it all together nicely. The palate is restrained and cool, with a good balance of power and finesse: black cherry, black pepper, bay leaf, blackcurrant, some creamy oak and some clove in the mouth perfume. It’s concentrated and ripe, but so controlled and precise. The tannins make themselves known, asserting a stacked frame on which long length carries. The quintessential Australian blend is showing its worth in a big way here, with a wine of restrained complexity and straight-up class. This has a long life ahead based on its balance and structure, though some may find it hard to wait.
95 POINTS
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate
The 2022 The Peake Cabernet Shiraz is supremely elegant in the context of this uniquely idiosyncratically Australian style of wine. Often big, bolshy, broad, powerful and tannic, this wine has grace and balance, purple fruit persistence and allspice. It's a chalky wine of impact and length. Very good indeed. 14% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
95 POINTS
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate
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. 14% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
95 POINTS
Angus Hughson - Vinous
The stunning 2022 Cabernet Shiraz The Peake shows exceptional clarity of fruit, delicacy and detail. It opens with wafts of violet and rubbed sage over a generous core of pure blueberry. Exquisite balance is the key to the 2022, with ample flavor and a rich core of fine yet firm tannins singing over a long, sustained finish. This whispers rather than shouts and is all the better for it.
