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ProducerHenschke
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Vintage1998
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Grape VarietyShiraz
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RegionAustralia
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Sub RegionEden Valley
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SizeBottle
Regarded as the best medium-sized red wine producer in Australia, Henschke has gone from strength over the past three decades under the guidance of winemaker Stephen and viticulturist Prue Henschke. The red wines fully capitalise on the very old, low-yielding, high quality vines and are superbly made with sensitive but positive use of small new oak. Hill of Grace is second only to Penfold’s Grange as Australia’s red wine icon. A founding member of Australia’s First Family of Wine.
The Mount Edelstone vineyard, situated in the Eden Valley, was planted in 1912 by Ronald Angas, a descendant of George Fife Angas, who founded South Australia. Unusual for its time, it was planted solely to shiraz. The ancient 500 million-year-old soils on the vineyard are deep red-brown clay-loam to clay, resulting in low yields from over 100 year-old dry-grown, ungrafted centenarian vines. First bottled as a single-vineyard wine in 1952, it became recognised as one of the greatest shiraz wines in Australia.
93 Points James Halliday
Medium red-purple; a fragrant and aromatic bouquet with spicy overtones to the berry and leaf fruit leads into a palate where spice, berry, cherry, leaf and mint are all present in abundance. The oak has been perfectly controlled throughout, and the wine finishes with excellent, fine tannins.
94 Points Wine Front
The wine opens with dark fruits, earth clods, thick furls of mocha and a hit of lifted spice ” it’s classic aged Shiraz. The palate is slippery, still has reasonable vitality and blends secondary savoury characters with remnants of forest berries, supple/chocolatey tannins and a long, plush finish. Some chatter and distraction and the wine kept revealing more, including some, yes, it was there, brett, which increased in intensity as the wine opened, but without compromising the wine before it was finished. A good thing.