Hickinbotham

Hickinbotham, based in the Clarendon area of McLaren Vale, is home to vines dating back to 1858. Clarendon lies to the extreme north of McLaren Vale, on the edge of the Adelaide foothills, at an altitude much higher than the rest of the region (almost 300 metres), providing cooler nights to help refresh the vines.

The Hickinbotham Clarendon Vineyard was established in 1971 by Alan Hickinbotham. It is 80 hectares in size and was initially planted with dry-grown Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah, although it is now also planted with Merlot. It quickly became highly regarded and has been the source for many of Australia’s finest wines, such as Penfolds Grange.

The Jackson family have put two highly regarded winemakers in place to run the project, Christopher Carpenter and Peter Fraser. Quantities of all these wines are very small (a lot of fruit is still being sold off), with only 1800 cases in total made across the four wines.