Grape

Shiraz

Its Origins

Henschke have a long history in Australian wine, and their story is similar to many European families who have reached the very top of their field: building on the best aspects of tradition while integrating the finest modern thinking and methodology. Johann Christian Henschke was a Sliesian refugee who came to Australia in 1841 seeking religious freedom. In 1862 he planted the first vineyard on his property in Keyneton South Australia, in the now famous Eden Vale, with the first wine released six years later. Fourth generation Cyril Henschke laid the foundation for the company’s modern success by looking beyond the fortified styles of the day to develop their first ‘serious’ single-varietal and single-vineyard wines, in particular the now-legendary Shiraz wines ‘Hill of Grace’ and ‘Mount Edelstone’. Today the fifth generation are if anything stronger, with the team of winemaker Stephen Henschke and his viticulturalist wife Prue having established the label at the pinnacle of not only Australian but world winemaking. The exceptional skill and appropriate technology brought to bear in the winery, and organic and biodynamic principles in the vineyard, are far more than doing justice to the tradition they are part of...and the extremely old vines they have in their care. Some of these vines are 100 years old - and on their original rootstocks - while vines in the Hill of Grace vineyard are likewise on original rootstocks, though some date back as far as the 1860s.

What The Critics Say

99 /100 Parkers Wine Advocate, Joe Czerwinski

"Another terrific HoG, the 2013 Hill of Grace Shiraz is dense and rich, thickly concentrated and full-bodied yet not heavy or bulky in the slightest. It's kept lively through a fine dusting of savory spices—allspice, clove, star anise—and juicy, mouthwatering acids, which support the blackberry and plum fruit. The finish, framed by softly dusty and supple tannins, suggests a wine capable of at least two decades of positive evolution." Drink 2022 - 2040

98/100 Huon Hooke

"The bouquet is tremendously complex, with great detail and charm from which it is difficult to separate the component aromas. Licorice, aniseed, sage and violet, raspberry and freshly tilled earth are some. The wine has great density and richness on the palate: fleshy depths and a glossy texture. Very juicy and fruit-sweet in the mouth, but never mawkish, with abundant soft tannins adding savouriness. It's deep, long, lush and harmonious. There is terrific concentration and power, and prodigious length. It's a wine with awesome volume and persistence of flavour. 25 SEP 2018." Drink 2018 - 2043

96/100 Halliday's Wine Companion, James Halliday

"It's the story of the farmer 'too hot, too cold, too dry, too wet'. Well, not exactly, unless it be too dry, because the Eden Valley had no rain for nearly 6 months until 16mm at the beginning of Mar, and frequent weekly cycles of hot and cold prevailed. The patchwork quilt of Hill of Grace was picked in small parcels between 21 Feb and 7 Mar. It's a rock solid (to use a Henschke expression) wine, matured in 86% French and 14% American oak (56% new). There are no dead fruits, but this is a full-bodied Hill of Grace, with blackberry, licorice and anise fruit, the tannins exceptionally well managed, the oak likewise." Drink by 2048