Henschke Hill of Grace Shiraz 2004 (1x 750mL), SA

Hill of Grace: this surely is one of the most evocative phrases in the world of wine. It is a translation from the German ‘Gnadenberg’, a region in Silesia, and the name given to the lovely Lutheran Church across the road. For Henschke it is the name of both the vineyard and the wine that has so captured the heart of the red wine lover.

Over 165 years ago Johann Christian Henschke came from Silesia to settle and farm in the Eden Valley region. By the time third-generation Paul Alfred Henschke took over the reins in 1914, the famous Hill of Grace shiraz 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. Hill of Grace is a unique delineated single historic vineyard. The vineyard lies opposite a beautiful old Lutheran Church, built of local field stone, which was euphoniously named Gnadenberg, meaning Hill of Grace.

In 1951 the property was purchased by Louis Edmund Henschke, a son of Paul Alfred Henschke, who worked the vineyard and property for nearly 40 years. The family continues to maintain the heritage.

The vineyard is planted predominantly to shiraz, but a surprise to many is that it also includes other varieties: riesling, semillon and mataro (mourvèdre), with sercial now only a distant memory. But this planting of several varieties in the ‘garden’ as the old Barossan growers called their vineyard, is typical - a sort of hedging their bets against the vagaries of Mother Nature. The whites are used in Eden Valley varietals, and the mataro… well, that’s one of Mother Nature’s later maturing varieties. It has gone into Hill of Grace at times, but usually it just doesn’t ripen enough.

Cyril Henschke, the fourth generation, made the first single-vineyard wine from these vines in 1958. The original vines are now over 145 years old. The handpicked grapes are vinified in traditional open-top fermenters.

Dark crimson in colour. A complex, spicy nose of tar, anise, blackberries and blueberries with hints of five spice, vanilla and cedar. The sweet, lush and fleshy palate displays great depth and texture, with excellent length and intensity and fine, velvety tannins.

Top Vintages

2005, 2004, 2002, 1999, 1998, 1996, 1994, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1986, 1978