Henschke Hill of Grace

Henschke Hill of Grace Shiraz bottle image

Wine Description

Over 165 years ago Johann Christian Henschke came from Silesia to settle and build his farm in the Eden Valley region. By the time third-generation Paul Alfred Henschke took over the reins in 1914, the now famed Hill of Grace vines were more than 50 years old. They were planted around the 1860s by an ancestor, Nicolaus Stanitzki, in rich alluvial soil in a shallow fertile valley just north-west of the winery

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Acclaim
“Deep shaded dark ruby. Wonderfully intense and complex nose. This wine just wraps itself around you! (And I haven't even tasted it yet.) Intense cocktail of prunes and something floral. Really rich. Luscious palate of gorgeously ripe fruit, just the right level of refreshing acidity with mineral top notes. Extremely rewarding with many layers. Very long indeed.” – 20 points — Jancis Robinson, Mar 2024
“Well-upholstered, with plush baked plum, fruit ‘leather', black olive and tapenade, plus praline and chocolate oak (100% new). Long leash tannins let the fruit spool out, revealing notes of black tea, iodine, baking spices, cardamom and tamarind paste. Then the finish reels in, with crushed stone-like dry extract. Satisfyingly expansive, yet powerful and controlled, it reflects a year in which grapes were harvested during a record heatwave, with 15 consecutive days over 35°C.” — Decanter, Mar 2024
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Vineyard & Production Info
Vineyard name
Hill of Grace Vineyard
Soil composition
Allivial sandy loam over clay
Elevation:
1,312 feet
Harvest time:
19 March-4 April
First vintage of this wine:
1958
Average Vine Age:
100 year average - oldest vines 150 years
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Winemaking & Aging
Varietal composition:
100% Shiraz
Fermentation container:
Traditional open-top concrete fermentation tanks
Malolactic fermentation:
Full
Fining agent:
Vegan
Type of aging container:
Hogsheads
Type of oak:
French and American
Length of aging before bottling:
18 months
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Analytical Data
No relevant data were found.
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Wine Production

Cyril Henschke made the first single-vineyard shiraz wine from this vineyard in 1958 from handpicked grapes vinified in traditional open-top fermenters. Matured in 58% new and 42% seasoned (85% French and 15% American) hogsheads for 18 months prior to blending the separate parcels from the vineyard and bottling.

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About the Vineyard

The red-brown earth grading to deep silty loam has excellent moisture-holding capacity for these dry-grown vines, that sit at an altitude of 400m, with an average rainfall of 520mm. Hill of Grace is a unique, delineated, historic single vineyard that lies opposite a beautiful old Lutheran church, which is named after a picturesque region in Silesia known as Gnadenberg, meaning ‘Hill of Grace’.