Winemaker Notes
Very deep crimson in colour. Sweet blackberries, cherries and plums with anise, spicy peppery characters and vanillin aromas. The palate is concentrated and rich with complex flavours, great length and finishes with velvety, silky soft tannins.
Hill of Grace is a unique delineated single historic vineyard. The famous century-old Hill of Grace vines 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. The vineyard lies opposite a beautiful old Lutheran Church, built of local field stone, which was euphoniously named Gnadenberg, meaning 'Hill of Grace'.
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The single vineyard 1996 Shiraz Hill of Grace displays ample fruit volume, excellent ripeness and generosity thanks to the vintage yet retains the Henschke house style. It opens with baked cherry and forest fruits before more earthy aged clay and terracotta tones emerge. A firm, robust, punchy palate follows, dominated by fruit pastilles and dried sage with some gamey complexity poking through. Firm yet manicured tannins with impressive balance guarantee a lengthy future.
Marked by an unmistakable deep purple hue and savory aromatics, Syrah makes an intense, powerful and often age-worthy red. Native to the Northern Rhône, Syrah achieves its maximum potential in the steep village of Hermitage and plays an important component in the Red Rhône Blends of the south, adding color and structure to Grenache and Mourvèdre. Syrah is the most widely planted grape of Australia and is important in California and Washington. Sommelier Secret—Such a synergy these three create together, the Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre trio often takes on the shorthand term, “GSM.”
Higher in elevation and topographically more dramatic than the Barossa Valley floor, Eden Valley abuts it to its south and east. While it is a bit of an extension of Barossa, Eden Valley is topographically different than the pastoral Barossa Valley, and is composed of rocky hills and eucalyptus groves.
Recognizing Eden Valley’s potential with Riesling in the 1960s and 70s, producers started to move their Riesling production from Barossa to these better sites where schist soils on hilltops would produce more steely, tart and age-worthy examples. A most famous site, planted by Colin Gramp, called Steingarten, today produces one of the most outstanding Australian Rieslings. Youthful Eden Valley Rieslings express floral, grapefruit and mineral, while with time in the bottle, they become increasingly toasty and complex.
Riesling isn’t the only grape the region can grow; undeniably at lower altitudes Shiraz does very well. Mount Edelstone is a notable vineyard as well as the Hill of Grace, which boasts healthy Shiraz vines well over 100 years old. This is the only Australian region where Merlot has a made a name for itself and Chardonnay can be spectacular, particularly from the High Eden subregion in the southern valley.