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  • Country ranking ?

    68
  • Producer ranking ?

    23
  • Decanting time

    4h
  • When to drink

    2020-2035
  • Food Pairing

    Lamb

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The Story

Mount Edelstone (from the German 'Edelstein' meaning gemstone) is a single dry grown Shiraz vineyard planted by Ronald Angas in 1918 and through the 1920s. Henschke made wines from Mount Edelstone as early as 1952, although Cyril Henschke did not purchase the vineyard until 1974. By this stage Mount Edelstone was already recognised as an important vineyard site. Located on the eastern slopes of Mount Edelstone this 40 acre vineyard comprises low yielding gnarled vines, many well into their eighties and planted on deep red sandy loams over laminated siltstones. This low input vineyard is being gradually re-trellised to the Scott Henry system, where shoots are trained upwards and downwards to maximise exposure of leaves and fruit to sunlight. The oldest vines are trained on a traditional two-wire trellis. The site is cooler and higher than the Barossa floor although the climate is essentially Mediterranean. Vintage takes place in mid to late April. The wine is fermented in open top slate 'headed down' fermenters. Fermentation is completed in a combination of new American and French oak.

Henschke Vineyard Technical Information:

MOUNT EDELSTONE

Location: Eden Valley wine region, 4 km north-west of Keyneton in the Barossa Range of South Australia.

Varieties: Shiraz, on own roots, dry grown.

Wines Produced: Individual vineyard bottling since early 1950s.

Age: Planted in 1918.
Average Yield: 6 tonnes/hectare (2.5 tonnes/acre).

Soil: Deep sandy loam, over red clay loam, overlying laminated siltstone.

Trellis: Five trellis types - Twin Wire Vertical, Vertical Shoot Positioned, High Single Wire, Scott Henry System and Smart Dyson.

Planting: Wide planting – 3.7 m x 3.7 m giving 783 vines/hectare. Rows are planted east-west. Dry grown.

Treatments: The vines are mulched with wheat straw with a permanent sward of grass in the row, so herbiciding and working the soil are techniques no longer used.

Maintenance Quality: Mass selection carried out over three growing seasons. Establishment of a nursery source block. Assessment of trellis systems and use of rootstock.

Rainfall: Average annual, 600 mm.

Altitude: 400 metres

Latitude: 34 degrees 32'

Longitude: 139 degrees 06'

Aspect: Easterly

Size: 16 hectares (40 acres)

Awards: National wine show awards for every vintage since first shown in 1956


Year Vintage Quality Optimum Drinking

1984 Excellent 20+ years
1985 Very Good15+ years
1986 Exceptional 20+ years
1989 Great 15+ years
1990 Exceptional 20+ years
1991 Excellent 15+ years
1992 Excellent 20+ years
1993 Great 20+ years
1994 Exceptional 25+ years
1995 Excellent 20+ years
1996 Exceptional 25+ years
1997 Very Good15+ years
1998 Excellent 15+ years
1999 Excellent 20+ years
2000 Great 15+ years
2001 Excellent 20+ years
2002 Exceptional 25+ years
2003 Great 15+ years
2004 Great 20+ years
2005 Exceptional 20+ years
2006 Excellent 20+ years
2007 Great 15+ years
2008 Great 15+ years
2009 Exceptional 20+years

2010 Great 15+ years

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Vintage 2017

AUSTRALIA VINTAGE REPORT: The 2017 winegrape crush is estimated to be 1.93 million tonnes, based on responses received by the Wine Sector Survey 2017. This crush is 5 per cent higher than the 2016 final crush figure of 1.84 million tonnes (Department of Agriculture and Water Resources – Levies recorded figure). It is the third consecutive vintage where the tonnes crushed have increased.

Additional tonnes this year came relatively equally from the cool and temperate regions of Australia and the warm inland regions (Riverina, Murray Darling-Swan Hill and Riverland). However, the tonnes from the cool and temperate regions increased by 9 per cent compared to a 3 per cent increase in the warm inland regions.

Most regions recorded an increase in tonnes crushed including: Riverland, Riverina, Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, Coonawarra, Clare Valley, Wrattonbully, Margaret River, King Valley, Eden Valley, Heathcote, Tasmania, Orange, Gundagai, Grampians, Hunter Valley, Hilltops, Alpine Valleys and Rutherglen.

 

Regions where the tonnes crushed declined in 2017 included Murray Darling-Swan Hill, Langhorne Creek, Padthaway, Adelaide Hills, Currency Creek, Goulburn Valley, Cowra, Swan District, Mount Benson, Robe and Mudgee.

The 2017 red variety crush is estimated to be 1,062,660 tonnes – an increase of 112,000 tonnes (up 12 per cent) compared with 2016. The white variety crush is estimated to be 866,970 tonnes, a decrease of 19,000 tonnes (down 2 per cent) compared with 2016. Red varieties increased their share of the crush to 55 per cent, compared with 52 per cent in 2016.

The top three red varieties by volume were Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, together accounting for 85 per cent of the total red crush. Shiraz accounted for 47 per cent of the red crush (up slightly from 2016) while the Cabernet Sauvignon share fell from 27 per cent to 26 per cent and Merlot remained at 12 per cent.

Among the whites, Chardonnay remains the dominant variety. However, its share fell from 47 per cent in 2016 to 42 per cent this year with the Chardonnay crush down 13 per cent.

 

2017 will also be a good year for Grenache. It’s a grape whose time has come, and has indeed been coming for a few years. It’s a warm-climate grape that does particularly well in regions such as McLaren Vale. Now that consumers have got over their strange obsession with dark colour and lots of structure in their red wines, Grenache is allowed to do what it does best: make elegant, perfumed, somewhat lighter-coloured reds that are the equivalent of the Pinot Noir of the warmer climates.

Pinot Noir is also going from strength to strength, and superb examples are coming from Tasmania, Mornington Peninsular, Macedon Ranges and cooler parts of the Yarra Valley. 2017 will be a good year for Pinot, and also for Australian wines’ cool climate regions generally.

Chardonnay is one grape where there has been a shift in style, and 2017 could see it become even more interesting. ‘As you’re well aware there’s been a trend for quite a few years for "size zero” Chardonnay, early picked, skinny and with a very strong sulphidy character,’ says Wildman. ‘The better examples of these wines have dominated at the wine shows and therefore have further driven the style (think Vasse Felix Heytesbury, Penfolds Bin A, Oakridge 864). ’However, this style of Chardonnay has come under criticism because it’s almost as if the foot has been made to fit the slipper, and they aren’t actually all that nice to drink. As a consequence, Wildman notes, there are now fewer wines in this skinny-sulphidy style being seen. ‘The pendulum seems to have swung back (rapidly) towards the middle ground, where the wines have some weight, texture and ripeness, are not afraid of some new oak, and the sulphides have been dialed back to just a whisper of struck match, making the wines not too skinny, not too fat, but "just right”.’ He reckons that as the 2016 wines hit the shelves next year this trend for more balanced wines will increase.

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Written Notes

Taking its name `Mount Edelstone` from the German Edelstein meaning ‘gemstone’, a reference to small yellow opals once found in the area, the Mount Edelstone Vineyard was planted in first planted in the Eden Valley in 1912, but was first bottled as a single-vineyard wine in 1952 by fourth-generation Cyril Henschke.  

The 2017 release marks the wine`s 6th anniversary and was matured in 26% new and 74% seasoned oak hogsheads for 18 months.

  • 96p

Mount Edelstone Shiraz 2017 – Terrific to see both the Mt Edelstone and the Hill of Grace finally released from the same vintage. For too long, Hill of Grace has held pole position (as one of this country’s great wines, no surprise there), but I suspect that many might be surprised when they compare the two. Mt Edelstone really deserves just as many accolades, and this is a cracking vintage for this wine. 

 

Very dark maroon. This is coiled and tight – coming back to it the next day, it had opened up, was far more approachable, and screamed elegance. It really does need time – in glass and bottle. If you drink shortly after opening at this stage, expect a tight, taut, powerful style. Serious concentration here. Flavours move through red berries/cherries, coffee beans, chocolate, animal skins, dry herbs and mulberries. Beautifully balanced, there is good acidity. A cracking Mt Edelstone, one which exceeds expectations imposed by the perception of the vintage. It has a long future ahead of it. 98.

  • 98p

Hung deli meat, star anise and blackberry adorn the nose of the 2017 Mount Edelstone Vineyard Shiraz. Discerning this is akin to peering over the counter at an Italian deli, with meat, cheeses and garlic hanging from the ceiling: it's enveloping and welcome. On the palate, the wine is bright and concentrated, with layers of salted blueberry, licorice and staunch (yet fine) tannins. It has flexibility and pliability, but it also has shape and form—all of it encased in a medium-bodied shell. It is savory and lean above all else, with bacon fat adorning all edges.

  • 95p
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Information

Origin

South Australia, Eden Valley

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