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  • Country ranking ?

    12
  • Producer ranking ?

    5
  • Decanting time

    3h
  • When to drink

    now to 2035
  • Food Pairing

    Slow Cooked Short Ribs

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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

Exceptional Langtons Classification. Hill of Grace is surely one of the most evocative phrases in the world of wine, capturing the heart of red wine lovers everywhere. The vineyard lies opposite a beautiful old Lutheran Church, built of local field stone and named Gnadenberg which translates into Hill of Grace. Cyril Henschke, the fourth generation, made the first single vineyard Hill of Grace wine in 1958. The original vines are now a century...

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Tasting note

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Written Notes

An average winter rainfall preceded the vintage (after two consecutive drought years). A mild spring with excellent flowering conditions and a mild, cool but windy summer allowed above average yields. A cool, dry autumn provided an exceptionally long, slow ripening period and very good flavour development. Yields of up to 15% above average with superb quality. Medium deep crimson. Intense and complex ground coffee/chocolate box/black cherry/rhubarb/blackberry aromas with hints of bitumen and malt/savoury oak. The palate is wonderfully concentrated and powerful with deep set blackberry/mocha flavours intertwined with plenty of malt/spicy oak, fine lacey tannins finishing up firm, but with excellent flavour length. An immensely fine wine with wonderful balance and cellaring potential. 19.5 points (99/100).
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Information

Origin

South Australia, Eden Valley

Vintage Quality

Excellent

Value For Money

Very good

Investment potential

Below Average

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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