For years it supplied fruit for two of Australia`s most famous labels, Grange and Eileen Hardy, but the vineyard itself stayed in the shadows. It might not seem like a name to conjure with, if anything it sounds a little quaint, but the Hickinbotham Clarendon Vineyard is a jewel in Australia`s viticultural heritage. It lies at the very cool, northern end of McLaren Vale in the Adelaide foothills. It was first laid out as a vineyard in 1858 by one Edward Peake, who was soon exporting his wines as far afield as Java, Calcutta and England. Eventually, the Depression put paid to the vineyard`s first great run, but its fame lingered on. In 1971, Alan Hickinbotham bought land here and replanted. Pretty soon he too was earning wide recognition for the very high quality of his fruit, and supplying some top labels.
The Hickinbotham family finally sold up in 2012. Hickinbotham Clarendon was carefully folded into the Jackson Family Wines Portfolio, and given a label and a team all its own. The resident winemaking and vineyard team are joined by seasonal winemaker Chris Carpenter, from California. From the start Chris was anxious not to be seen as an American interloper, and spent a lot of time with local winemakers trying to understand local circumstances. As he puts it, there are some similarities to making wine in California and Australia, but there are some big differences, too; water, for one thing, is (even) scarcer in Australia. (NT 09/11/20)