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Hill of Grace 2008

Henschke, Eden Valley, Australia

Henschke
Eden Valley Australia
  • 99
    Points
  • The 354 best
    of 3 290 954
    wines globally
  • 12 Pros of
    12 recommend
    this wine
270 99
  • Taste
  • Moment

  • Country ranking ?

    11

  • Producer ranking ?

    4

  • Decanting time

    3h

  • When to drink

    now to 2035

  • Food Pairing

    Roast Pauillac Lamb

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Winemaker Notes: Intense deep crimson in color. The nose is attractive and enticing with aromas of sweet blackberry, blueberry, Satsuma plum and rhubarb, with characteristic nuances of oriental spices, black tea leaves, anise, tar and cedar. The palate is rich and concentrated with spicy plum, crushed herbs and Dutch licorice flavors. An amazing balance of acid, fruit intensity, weight and length create a powerful palate that finishes with lon...

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The Story

Nicolaus Stanitski, a Henschke ancestor, originally planted the Hill of Grace vineyard during the 1860s above the Barossa Valley. During the 1950s Cyril Henschke took his family concern back to wine and established the Hill of Grace label in 1956. The Shiraz vines – many now over 140 years old – are among the world's oldest genetic Shiraz plant material. It is remarkable that the vineyard remained intact considering the economic uncertainty an...

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Wine Information

Parker 96 points: Deep garnet-purple in color, the 2008 Hill of Grace has a slightly closed nose before giving subtle notes of ripe black cherries, blackberries and violets with hints of cedar, pepper, green tea and cumin. There's a slight raisin character on the full-bodied palate with crisp acid, dense fruit and firm, grainy tannins, finishing long. Drink it from 2017 to 2035+.

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Latest Pro-tasting notes

12 tasting notes

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Written Notes

Medium deep crimson. Fresh blackberry pastille, espresso, roasted chestnut, vanilla, hint marzipan with wax polish, herb notes. Superbly balanced wine with deep set blackberry pastille, dark chocolate, roasted coffee flavours, fine chalky tannins and well-balanced vanilla marzipan roasted chestnut, hint coconut notes. Builds up graphite/ chocolaty firm with seductive sweet fruits and lovely mineral length. Lovely density, richness, density and torque. This is in a really great place. I tasted the 2008 Hill of Grace mid-last year within the context of a vertical tasting, but here on its own it impressively evokes the essence of vineyard site and the character of the Henschke style of winemaking. Should last a great distance.  Henschke-embossed bottle. Vino-lok seal. Now – 2040 14.5 % alc 98+ points

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  • 98p

Intense deep crimson in colour. The nose is attractive and enticing with aromas of sweet blackberry, blueberry, Satsuma plum and rhubarb, with characteristic nuances of oriental spices, black tea leaves, anise, tar and cedar. The palate is rich and concentrated with spicy plum, crushed herbs and Dutch licorice flavours. An amazing balance of acid, fruit intensity, weight and length create a powerful palate that finishes with long, fine tannins.

The 2008 vintage in Eden Valley was preceded by an average rainfall and a mild and unusually frost-free spring with regular rainfall periods. Fine flowering weather meant good set despite the expectation that the previous drought year of 2007 would affect yields. The vines also showed surprisingly vigorous growth. A dry and hotter than average early summer caused smaller berry and bunch size. Although temperatures climbed to over 40C around New Year and in mid-February, the weather from mid-January through February was the coolest for 30 years, allowing amazing development of fruit colour, flavour and maturity. In early March, South Australia suffered an unprecedented record heat wave of 15 days over 35C. The unexpected searing heat seemed never-ending and resulted in stressed vines, significant leaf drop, escalating sugar levels in the fruit and significant shrivel. A cool change followed, which brought relief. Selective early morning handpicking, leaving shrivelled fruit on the vines, gave the best quality, resulting in some amazing intensely coloured and flavoured reds, in particular shiraz.

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Information

Origin

South Australia, Eden Valley

Vintage Quality

Outstanding

Value For Money

Very good

Investment potential

Good

Fake factory

None

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Inside Information

The beautiful and ethereal Henschke Hill of Grace, first vintaged by fourth-generation winemaker Cyril Henschke in 1958, is Australia’s most famous single-vineyard wine. Current custodians Stephen and Prue Henschke, together with their elder son Johann, have recently released the 52nd vintage, the 2009 Hill of Grace, a quintessential Eden Valley shiraz with its pristine blackberry aromas, plum, anise and exotic five spice nuances, fine lacy tannins, voluminous freshness and subtle savoury oak complexity.

The historic Hill of Grace vineyard, which takes its name from the adjacent Gnadenberg Lutheran Church (Gnadenberg was a region in Silesia, meaning Hill of Grace), lies in a shallow fertile valley at around 400m, and was originally planted around the 1860s by Nicolaus Stanitzki, a Henschke ancestor. The gnarled old, low-yielding shiraz vines are dry grown and managed using organic and biodynamic principles to preserve soil moistures, optimise vine and soil health and ‘drought proof’ the vineyard.

The vineyard is planted on red clay soils overlain by sandy and silty loams interspersed with gravels. The individual blocks are named after local landmarks and the remains of the 19th-century Parrot Hill village. Several blocks were planted on their own roots using pre-phylloxera shiraz vines brought out from Europe by the early settlers. These include the surviving 1860s plantings known as the Grandfathers, and Post Office Block One a few years after. The Church Block, House Block and Windmill Block were planted with the same clonal material during the 1950s.

The fruit from each block is handpicked at optimum maturity and individually vinified using traditional winemaking techniques, which include the use of open-top fermenters built in the 1950s, together with submerging of the cap and minimal handling. After two years in oak barrels, the wine is blended and bottled without fining, before being matured in the Henschke cellars until release.

The highly refined, beautifully proportioned Hill of Grace speaks profoundly of place, history, generations of effort and remarkable evolution. It’s a story of luck, passion, imagination and drive for quality that has resulted in more recent vintages reaching another plane, by optimising magnificent vineyard resources, superb technical skills and craftsmanship.

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