13 April 2023Republished free today, in our Throwback Thursday series, this milestone report is the first time in Max Allen’s 30-year career as a wine writer that he has published wine reviews with scores – and the first of these tasting articles that Max will be writing for us monthly. We’re excited to be able to bring you more wine news and reviews from our trusted correspondent in Australia; members will be able to access Max’s wine reviews via our tasting-notes database.
29 March 2023 A look forward and back at this venerable Eden Valley estate. Above, Prue and Stephen Henschke (photographed by Duy Dash).
Max writes Gwyn Olsen is on her best behaviour. She’s sitting at the ‘top table’ alongside Stephen and Prue Henschke and their eldest son Johann – Australian wine royalty. The four of them are facing a room full of wine media and trade assembled for a 60-year retrospective of the iconic Hill of Grace Shiraz, and a preview of the top Henschke wines from the 2018 vintage. Olsen started working as senior winemaker here in January this year, and this is her first public appearance in her new role. No pressure, then.
Olsen has come to this remote corner of the Eden Valley from the far-off Hunter Valley, where she spent many years developing a fine reputation at Briar Ridge and then Pepper Tree wineries, making top examples of the Hunter’s signature white: crisp, lean Semillon.
So, when discussion at the tasting turns to the 2018 Hill of Peace, a Semillon produced in painfully limited quantity from a half-hectare of near-60-year-old vines on the Hill of Grace site, all eyes turn to her.
‘It’s not Hunter Semillon, is it?’ says someone cheekily at the back. Someone else adds: ‘No, it actually tastes of something!’ And everyone laughs.
‘No, it’s not Hunter Semillon’, Olsen smiles, the ice broken. ‘And the lovely thing is, it’s not trying to be.’
She talks about how she can taste, in this white wine, the same interplay between acidity and fruit flavour that is the hallmark not only of the (much more) famous Shiraz grown in the same spot, but also the Riesling and Mataro planted here.
‘It’s a testament’, she says, ‘to Stephen and Prue and the family’s work maintaining these little parcels (of vines) that each tells a different story of the same bit of earth. I think it’s quite a fascinating way to look at them.’
Stephen Henschke obviously approves of his new employee’s interpretation (not that it’s an audition: Olsen’s already got the job). He responds by asking a question that has been put to him many times over the last few decades, as the price of – and demand for – Hill of Grace Shiraz has grown and grown.
‘You might think, well, why don’t we just pull everything else out and plant the whole vineyard with Shiraz?’ he says. ‘But it’s history. When my uncle Lou planted Semillon and Riesling and Mataro here [in the early 1950s, before Stephen’s father Cyril started bottling Shiraz from the older vines as a single-vineyard wine] it was really a time when people tended to hedge their bets. And so, you keep that (tradition). It’s an interesting, important story of what Eden Valley’s all about.’
Well, you keep most of it. History hasn’t quite saved all the vines at Hill of Grace.
The 19th-century Gnadenberg (Hill of Grace) Lutheran church (photo: Dragan Radocaj)
When I first visited Henschke in the mid 1990s, I was surprised to learn that one corner of this famous vineyard – the corner across the road from the much-photographed Gnadenberg church, next to where the Semillon is planted – still boasted a few rows of Sercial grapes. The vines were a legacy of the days when Stephen’s ancestors mostly produced fortifieds and the Sercial was used to make an Australian approximation of ‘madeira’.
But a few years later, with the popularity of Australian fortifieds in freefall, the Sercial was removed to plant a collection of Shiraz vines, propagated from cuttings Prue Henschke had taken from a selection of the oldest vines a few years before. These mass Shiraz selections are part of a comprehensive, long-term project Prue initiated in the mid 1980s after returning from studying viticulture at Geisenheim.
‘Uncle Lou and I worked together to select the material’, she says. ‘There was a little block of land he wanted to plant next to the Post Office Block [half a hectare of Shiraz he’d planted in 1965 across the road from an old, ruined post office]. So, we selected cuttings off the Grandfathers [the original 1860s Shiraz vines at Hill of Grace] and put them in the new block [in 1989]. This gave us an opportunity to compare wine made from young and old vines side by side on the same site. And that was pretty exciting.’
One of the Hill of Grace Grandfathers, vines dating from the 1860s (photo: Dragan Radocaj)
By 2001, the vines from the new block were producing wine good enough to be bottled on its own, under the Hill of Roses label. It wasn’t until the late 2010s, though, that it started to taste like the wine from the adjacent block.
‘We thought, well, it’s going to be interesting to follow the characteristics of a young vineyard, to see when it starts picking up that beautiful five-spice character we see so obviously in the old vines’, says Prue. ‘We waited, I suppose, 25 or 30 years before we could pick it up. Maybe this is an epigenetic story: we actually saw those vines tune themselves into that site and begin to present those characteristics. Which ties into the [question] of “what is an old vine?”: perhaps 35 years [the minimum for consideration as ‘old vine’ in the Barossa Old Vine Charter] is the right age to say, yep, a vine has adapted to a site.’
Tasting the Hill of Roses and Hill of Grace side-by-side is a fascinating exercise. The other two top Shirazes released each year by Henschke are a clear demonstration of the influence of site, vine age and elevation: you would expect Mount Edelstone, which comes from 100-year-old vines grown at 400 m (1,312 ft) to taste different from the Wheelwright, from 50-year-old vines planted 10 km (6 miles) away at 470 m.
But there’s a difference, too – as much as there are similarities – between the vines that produce Hill of Roses and Hill of Grace, despite being made from the same genetic material and planted side-by-side in the same soil, in effectively the same way. And it’s not a measurable difference, recorded in TA or pH. It’s something you can taste.
Prue Henschke describes the older-vine wine as having more complexity, a distinctive quality to the mid palate. Stephen describes it as an extra density. But Olsen thinks that, irrespective of vine age, there is also an intensity and tightly wound quality to the tannins in both wines that is a hallmark of the site.
‘Maybe one day, once the science catches up to being able to analyse every single compound that exists in wine, we might then have an answer to the analytical question of what makes these wines unique’, she says. ‘But at the moment, that’s where the magic is, I guess.’
The wines
The tasting notes that follow are in two parts: the first features Max’s report on the 60th-anniversary tasting of 26 vintages of Hill of Grace, grouped by decade, from the very first, 1958 vintage through to the 2018 tasted alongside the other new releases from the Hill of Grace site; the second part comprises Jancis’s reviews of the full set of Henschke’s new releases, tasted in London. The single-vineyard 2018s will be released on 3 May 2023.
Hill of Grace anniversary tasting
All wines tasted non-blind at the winery, 28 February 2023.
Sixty years of Hill of Grace, 1958–2018
Unlike in 2013, when the Henschkes opened every vintage of Hill of Grace released up to that point – a tasting that Jancis attended and reported on here – this time around, we tasters were treated to a ‘mere’ 26 vintages. Not so much a ‘greatest hits’ line-up (a couple of the vintages – looking at you, ’68 – could hardly be described as ‘great’), more a lingering snapshot of the major changes in winemaking philosophy that have characterised this label over the last six decades.
1958 and the 1960s
Stephen Henschke describes the wines from the 1960s as having a ‘naturalness’, reflecting the organic-by-default traditional viticulture and his father Cyril’s relatively technology-free winemaking.
Cyril Henschke in the 1950s, alongside a basket press
As Cyril told a journalist in 1967: ‘The new breed of winemakers worries me. The art is being lost and science is taking over. A tendency is growing to use laboratory techniques to get quick results which would be achieved in the natural way if wine were left to itself. The natural way seems better to me.’
The first year that Shiraz from Hill of Grace was bottled on its own as a named single-vineyard table wine. Very good, deep chestnut-mahogany colour, still full of brambly, almost porty, ‘blackberry nip’ fruit, lovely old Barossa red, looking a little tired and ragged at first, a touch balsamic, but opens well in the glass. Still, though, I wouldn’t want to keep it too much longer (if I were lucky enough to have some in my cellar). (MA)
More density and fruit weight than the 1958, more harmonious and in better nick: silky texture to the tannins, earthy fruit, sweet round finish like rum-and-raisin cream. Drinking beautifully. (MA)
Good dark, dense colour, some red fruit still hanging around, coffee-mocha aromas, too; attractive but drying out a little: some dusty elegant tannins, a touch of oxidative digestif and cough-syrup characters on the finish. (MA)
From a famously warm, dry, low-yielding vintage in South Australia that produced some classic, long-lived red wines. Really expressive wine, with distinctive Australian bush aromatics: some smoky gum-leaf hints as well as lively red fruit. Atypically and surprisingly savoury, with assertive but fine, pumice-like tannins; lovely, characterful, and very much alive. (MA)
Not a great vintage (hot and dry) but the Henschkes’ 100th anniversary year so included for completeness’ sake. Tasting frail now, this still has some echoes of red fruit and a sense of style, but lacks the stuffing of the better vintages, is drying out and tasting a touch medicinal. (MA)
Drink
up
15
1970s
This decade, Stephen says, was about chasing a ‘Euro-style elegance’: the introduction of cultured yeasts, picking earlier, refrigeration in the winery, etc.
Looks and smells quite developed, noticeable browning in the glass, some ripe plummy fruit but fading; rescued by a lovely silky tannin texture on the tongue, touch of caramel to finish. Holding on. (MA)
Complex and unusual aromatics – a touch of eucalypt, some dark iodine, earthy fenugreek – and surprisingly juicy and vibrant still on the tongue. Vibrant and intriguing. (MA)
Dry, low-yielding vintage. Savoury aromas, some iodine, coffee, digestif; tasting a little dried out and tannic and chewy. This bottle is past its best. (MA)
12.5%
Drink
up
15
1980s
Stephen and Prue took over at Henschke after Cyril’s death in 1979 and through the 1980s began to introduce ideas and techniques they’d learned at Geisenheim: ‘We felt we were invincible because we’d studied overseas’, says Stephen. Cooler ferments, more focus on primary fruit, newer, fresher oak.
Considered a classic vintage: mild growing season, heatwave before vintage, above-average yields. Looks quite developed in the glass but floods the nostrils and mouth with lovely aromas of wild berries and warm earth; initially has a beautiful flow of tannins, but then shows signs of beginning to dry out on the finish. Not as great as other bottles I’ve tasted. (MA)
Despite Henschke rating this as an ‘exceptional vintage’ this wine – at least the bottle I tasted – is not looking all that exceptional now: atypically translucent colour and exotic aromas – not so much red fruit as almost tropical fruit (botrytis?) – with a sawdusty edge to the tannins and a slightly briny, sarsaparilla finish. (MA)
Considered one of the great vintages of Hill of Grace, and still, after almost four decades, a very impressive, brooding wine, full of dark, dense macerated plum and bramble, with some savoury wet-stone minerality and firm tannins. Some obvious remnants, though, to me, of sweet oak (new, American) propping up all that fruit. (MA)
Tasted in the reputational shadow of the 1986 and coming from a more difficult vintage (spring hail, January heatwave, cool February), and yet, to me on this occasion, it’s a more attractive wine. Yes, you can taste the hot summer in the aromas of dusty earth and darker fruit, but there’s a lovely vitality to the wine, a finesse to the tannins, a completeness to it. (MA)
Drink
1993
–
2036
18.5
1990s
The 1990s saw Prue’s work in the vineyard – mulching, composting, re-trellising – begin to pay off, with more fruit expression and definition in the wines.
Another Hill of Grace that comes with a stellar reputation: combination of ‘picture perfect’ growing season and large yields. This bottle completely lives up to its reputation: quite reserved and elusive at first, like catching the scent of a delicious roast dinner being enjoyed in the next room, then opens to a flood of bold, dark, vital flavours, all wrapped up in a harmonious whole. Absolutely belies its age. One of the greats. (MA)
Unlike 1990, this vintage was characterised by a hot summer and low yields. Will always live in the shadow of the great 1990, which is a pity in a way because this is also an outstanding wine in a beautiful place right now: intense, sinewy, bold dark fruit, very fine youthful tannin, great density, perhaps (and I’m quibbling) lacks the drive and harmony of the 1990. (MA)
Cooler growing season than 1991, higher yields, later vintage. Bit more translucent than the two previous dark vintages, cooler sweet fruit aromas, more lively spice and dried-herb complexity, still intense and recognisably Hill of Grace but lighter and nimbler on its feet. (MA)
Mild summer and long, cool, dry autumn. Very youthful ripe berry aromas, bramble, plum, dark fruit. Fine, young seamless tannin flows across the tongue. All lifted up by a complex spicy character that Stephen Henschke describes as ‘sage’, but I think, here, reminds me more of native Australian strawberry gum (both contain the aromatic cineole). (MA)
13.8%
Drink
2001
–
2046
18.5
2000s
The 2000s Stephen describes as a decade of ‘refining style’, seeking more consistency and clarity in the wines, marked by the change from cork to screwcap from 2002.
An atypically cool growing season rescued by a warm, dry autumn. Bright, snappy, youthful, dense fruit, plum and cola, blue and black glossy berries; a touch of spice and strawberry gum again, with fine, crisp, snappy tannins. Lovely, drinking beautifully, but atypical. (MA)
Quite wild and brambly fruit, macerated, dense, chewy, with some earthiness and unyielding, even tough, gamey tannins. Doesn’t have the flow and generosity of the better vintages. (MA)
Very lifted, almost exaggerated sweet black squishy mulberry fruit – reminds me less of Shiraz and more of top Tempranillo – lovely density, with complex hints of that strawberry-gum spice and some earthy gaminess. (MA)
Like the 2005, this has lots of lifted youthful, energetic black fruit, but with more grip and tannic engagement: the tannins are ‘sticky’ and malleable as they move across the tongue. (MA)
This has always been a supremely seductive wine but is proving to have the backbone to last for decades in the cellar. The 2008 vintage was hot, coming towards the end of a long drought period, and produced extra-ripe wines; some were all show early on and have run out of steam – but not Hill of Grace. Crazy-youthful bold dark fruit, all squishy plums and pippy bramble, accompanied by a potpourri of spice and herbs, all interlaced with exceptional, fine, lingering tannin. (MA)
14.5%
Drink
2013
–
2048
19
2010s
This is where Prue’s regenerative viticulture – permanent swards of native grasses in the vine rows, ongoing use of biodynamic preparations, ever-more-careful attention to detail in the vineyard – is resulting (on the whole) in more fruit purity and terroir expression.
The first wet lead-in to the season after many years of drought; early vintage. Bold, super-complex aromas, roasted meats, essence of black berries, singed sage leaves. Great fruit weight and intensity, but quite poised, glossy tannin. Just a hint of heat hanging off the finish? (MA)
For me, the least of the Hill of Graces tasted from this decade: still a good wine, with some plummy fruit and tight, youthful tannins and good length, but doesn’t have quite the distinctive character of the other vintages; a bit unyielding and unformed, perhaps in a developmental slump. (MA)
Unlike the following vintage, which is all about density and brooding potential, this is relatively translucent and open, both in colour, aromas and structure. Beautiful, expressive nose – all the bush spices and juicy berries – with fine, elegant, harmonious, ‘sticky’ tannins and a long sweep of fruit. Lovely savoury Hill of Grace that will develop more complexity as it ages. (MA)
A super-dense and tightly wound expression of Hill of Grace, with the promise of lots and lots of dark fruit waiting to be revealed from within the flood of dense tannin that blankets the tongue. A superbly layered wine, and – along with the 2012 – one that I think needs a couple more years to even begin to drink as well as it could. (MA)
Made from the older Shiraz blocks at Hill of Grace, planted between around 1860 and 1965; 18 months in mostly French and some American hogsheads, 20% new. Tasted in two different contexts, a few hours apart: first at the end of the vertical of Hill of Grace which stretched back to the 1958; then again, as the last wine in the line-up of new 2018s (Wheelwright, Mount Edelstone, etc). Coming after a cavalcade of developed, complex previous vintages – particularly the super-dense 2016 – the 2018 seemed refreshingly ‘elegant’, spicy and bright to smell, and intense but restrained and composed in the mouth. Tasting it straight after the Hill of Roses, by contrast, made its perfume seem a touch more subdued, but made you realise how much more depth, density, richness and sheer length it has in comparison to the younger-vine Shiraz from the same site. Either way, an exceptional vintage of the HoG. (MA)
Made from a 29-year-old not-quite-a-hectare of Shiraz, planted with cuttings from the oldest vines at Hill of Grace; 18 months in French hogsheads, 25% new. This is a beautiful, seductive young Shiraz, with a very pretty perfume of bramble berries and a hint of the heady, dark-spice-bazaar and sweet-sage aromas so typical of this site. Intense, elegant and focused, it is utterly delicious without quite stretching to the depth and profundity of the Hill of Grace. (MA)
Made in such tiny quantities that it’s only available to members of the Henschke wine club, unfortunately, but worth mentioning here as it is an outstanding example of Semillon grown in this part of the world, in a style (French-oak matured, bottle-aged before sale) quite unlike the unwooded, lower-alcohol wines made in the Hunter. Gorgeous amalgam of waxy lemon pith and barely warmed wheatmeal-toast aromas; lively and fresh on the tongue, with crisp citrus-juice and slightly chewy citron-peel and pineapple-rind textural qualities. Even at five years old, nowhere near its peak: the 2012 (first vintage of Hill of Peace, also tasted recently) is still fresh and tangy and only just beginning to fill out. (MA)
Full bottle a modest 1,214 g. Picked 11–12 April. 97% Cabernet Sauvignon with 2% Merlot and 1% Cabernet Franc. Matured in French oak hogsbeads (10% new) for 18 months before blending and bottling. First produced in 1978 and named after Stephen H's father. pH 3.56, TA 6.5 g/l.
Transparent, shaded garnet. Intense, decongestant sort of aroma. Very unlike a French or California Cabernet! None of that rich, sweet concentration. Earthy menthol (which I hope would lead me to South Australia if I were tasting it blind) and lively freshness on the palate. Medium persistence and then it really comes back like a boomerang to an incredibly long, throat-clearing mechanism. Amazingly fresh and sprightly for a 14.5% wine, with very light tannins and light salinity on the end of the palate. (JR)
Full bottle just 1,213 g. First vintage was 2015 to celebrate 150 years of Henschke family winemaking. 100% Shiraz planted in 1968 and picked 5 April from the coolest part of the Henschke's Eden Valley Shiraz vineyard. Matured for 18 months in oak hogsheads (65% French, 35% American), of which 21% were new, before blending and bottling. pH 3.57, TA 6.17 g/l.
Transparent crimson. Heady nose that seems more comfortable than that of the Cyril Henschke Cabernet. This really does seem like Shiraz country! Warm, salty impression. Lovely lift and delicacy for a wine with 14.5% alcohol! So much more successful than The Wheelwright from the cooler 2017. Long and neat and really lovely to drink now – so long as you are not looking for massive concentration and weight. Really complete already. (JR)
Full bottle just 1,278 g. First bottled as a single-vineyard wine back in 1952 with the vineyard acquired by Cyril Henschke in 1974. 100% 106-year-old Shiraz picked between 21 March and 14 April. Aged for 20 months prior to blending and bottling in oak hogsheads (77% French, 23% American) of which 27% were new. pH 3.54, TA 6.47 g/l.
Lustrous mid crimson. Quite concentrated nose and almost claret-like impression! Quite a charge of grainy tannins on the finish and a vigorous, assertive palate impression. Ripe fruit in an obvious framework and just a little alcoholic warmth and cinnamon on the finish. (JR)
Full bottle just 1,210 g. A baby by Henschke standards, this comes from a single 0.94-ha block in the Hill of Grace vineyard planted with Shiraz vines that are a mere 29 years old and therefore regarded as too young to include in the Hill of Grace bottling. First produced in 2001 when the vines were 12 years old. Picked on 21 March and aged for 18 months prior to blending and bottling in French oak hogsheads of which 25% were new. pH 3.45, TA 5.76 g/l.
Mid purplish crimson. Intense, high-toned but super-ripe nose. Hint of tamarind in the sweet/salt register. Perfectly managed tannins that are present but not dominant and an appetisingly dry (as opposed to sweet) finish. Lifted ripe, but carefully controlled, relatively cool Shiraz notes with a lovely gentle, savoury finish. Nothing bombastic about this. A real charmer. You could drink this tonight, so well disguised by the fruit are the tannins. Next time I have a sore throat, please pour this down it. Beautifully judged. (JR)
Full screwcapped bottle just 1,282 g. Bravo! 100% dry-grown, own-rooted Shiraz based on pre-phylloxera material brought from Europe in the mid 19th century and first produced as a single-vineyard wine in 1958. The deep silty loam holds moisture well in this site that is at an elevation of 400 m and benefits from an average annual rainfall of 520 mm. Included in the blend today are vines between 35+ and 100+ years old. This vintage was picked from 21 to 29 March and was matured for 18 months in oak hogsheads (83% French, 17% American) of which 20% were new. pH 3.46, TA 5.73 g/l.
Mid lustrous, shaded crimson. Subtle nose of minerals and earth with quite a 'sharp' palate entry. Lots of ripe-but-refreshing fruit suggests there's hardly any tannin here at all. It's somehow more 'comfortable' and settled – less sharp – than Hill of Roses 2018, with notes of molasses but nothing heavy nor obviously sweet. Wonderfully long and refreshing. It does taste like a vineyard in a bottle! I'm sure Stephen H works awfully hard in the winery but this almost tastes as though he doesn't. Difficult to know how long this will still offer great drinking; the Henschkes suggest '30+ years from vintage'. (JR)
Full screwcapped bottle just 1,260 g. Rated Dry on the back label's sweetness scale. Called after a local landmark.
Tight, floral nose with strong lime and toast notes. Very youthful with lots of acidity. A fine, delicate example of Eden Valley Riesling which could already be enjoyed but clearly has potential for considerable development. (JR)
Full, screwcapped Eden Valley-embossed bottle just 1,280 g. Rated Dry on the sweetness scale on the back label. Named after ancestor Julius Henschke.
Really fresh and subtle and super-delicate with lovely satin texture. More restrained than the Peggy's Hill 2022 Riesling with an impressively long finish. Already there's a dense undertow though. Very fine. (JR)
Full screwcapped bottle 1,278 g. From vines planted in 1968(!) by Cyril Henschke and a tribute to his brother Louis (1919–1990) 'fourth-generation grower of the Hill of Grace vineyard'.
Luscious fruit (far more so than most Hunter Valley Semillons). Clean and fresh and mouth-filling. Maybe not that complex at the moment but it clearly has potential. Though the acidity seems a little low …? (JR)
Full screwcapped bottle just 1,286 g. Shiraz, Grenache, Mataro. Named for Henry Evans who planted the first vineyard of seven acres at Keyneton in 1853. Twentieth-anniversary bottling,
Transparent crimson. Very young and simple when tasted immediately after their 2018 single-vineyard reds! Sweet and gentle but not (yet?) very interesting. Polished tannins. (JR)
Full screwcapped bottle just 1,287 g. Named as a tribute to the early Lutheran settlers in Barossa Valley. 80% Grenache, 20% Mataro. Low-yielding, dry-grown vines. 25th-anniversary bottling 'from selected vineyards in the Barossa'.
Very pale crimson. Very obvious and suave Grenache. Sweet and appealing. Neat and approachable, though without much perceptible tannin. A tiny bit meaty but also with sweet rose-petal notes and masses of fruit. Pretty nice! (JR)
Full screwcapped bottle just 1,283 g. Single-vineyard wine named for an antecedent Julius Henscke who worked in marble, including the war memorial on Adelaide's North Terrace.
Respectable but just a bit pinched on the end. Should the Henschkes stick to Shiraz?! (JR)
Full screwcapped bottle just 1,283 g. Blend of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot from various friendly growers. See this wine of the week.
Dark purplish crimson. Pungent, sweet, almost animal cocktail on the nose. Sweet fruit on the front and just a tad pinched on the end. But there are no serious faults in this. (JR)
