Hill of Grace 2018 Henschke

James Suckling
99/100 punten
A superb and harmonious Hill of Grace with wonderful complexity on the nose that keeps bringing you back to the glass. Minty blueberries, red berries and some blackberries. Heather and violets with beautifully integrated spices of peppercorn and five spice. Graphite, salt chocolate and cigar box, too. Intense, lush and concentrated. This is barely full-bodied but the concentration is simply effortless and the flavors grow on the palate. Super silky and svelte tannins glide through the even and cohesive palate. Persistent finish, lasting for more than two minutes. Let it breathe if you decide to open it now, but it will sleep well in your cellar, too. Screw cap.

Decanter
99/100 punten
The 60th anniversary of Australia's most famous single-vineyard wine, whose oldest contributing patch – the 0.56ha Grandfathers – was planted an incredible 160 years ago. There can't be many wines whose inaugural vintage came from 100-year-old vines! As always, it's a powerful, muscular wine built for the long haul, showcasing silky but structured tannins, fresh acidity, and concentrated, complex yet graceful flavours of ripe blackberry and boysenberry, lighter red and blue fruits, earthy beetroot, peppery cured meat and an exotic, herbal incense note. Named for the Gnadenberg Lutheran church which stands opposite the vineyard, itself named for the region in Silesia from which Johann Christian Henschke emigrated in 1841.

Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
98/100 punten
The Hill of Grace vineyard, in Eden Valley, comprises 13 separate blocks, six of which feed into the Hill of Grace Shiraz. The oldest block (0.56 hectares), known as "Grandfathers," was planted around 1860. The other blocks were planted in 1910 (0.33 hectares), 1951 (1.08 hectares), 1952 (0.7 hectares), 1956 (0.88 hectares) and 1965 (0.57 hectares). The 2018 Hill of Grace Shiraz was matured in a combination of new (20%) and seasoned (80%) oak hogsheads (83% French, 17% American) for 18 months prior to blending and bottling. On the nose, the 2018 vintage assists this wine in speaking clearly of its regional location: raspberry and licorice, coal dust, black tea and tobacco leaf. There are inflections of black truffle and bone broth, which always seem to emerge, however the wine is brighter and more focused than I have seen. It offers a beautiful, svelte display of fruit and tannin, with all things in harmony in the mouth. This is very long, as we would expect from the pedigree of this wine and the vineyard. It is concentrated and intense, sinewy, elegant and powerful—a wine for the future generation. Henschke is one of two Australian wineries awarded the Green Emblem award, which recognizes their leadership in sustainability, toward long-term environmental health and biodiversity. The wines are of exceptional quality and regional specificity across the board, and the release of the 2018 Hill of Grace Shiraz (and the other top-tier reds from the same exceptional vintage) is a cause for excitement for writers and collectors alike. This year, due to pressing travel commitments, I sadly missed the 60th anniversary celebration hosted at the winery, where 26 vintages of Hill of Grace were opened, with bottles from all six decades of its production. It was a devastating blow to miss the tasting, but I'm fortunate to have tasted this wine many times over the years from various decades, and I am convinced that it evolves into a graceful wine of expressiveness and "sense of place." The 2018 vintage was a beauty: warm, largely free from disease pressure and responsible for a suite of wines across the region that still today speak of vitality, energy and grace. It will go down as one of the greats of the past decade and likely more and, for me, is on par with the great 2015.

Henschke is one of two Australian wineries awarded the Green Emblem award, which recognizes their leadership in sustainability, toward long-term environmental health and biodiversity. The wines are of exceptional quality and regional specificity across the board, and the release of the 2018 Hill of Grace Shiraz (and the other top-tier reds from the same exceptional vintage) is a cause for excitement for writers and collectors alike. This year, due to pressing travel commitments, I sadly missed the 60th anniversary celebration hosted at the winery, where 26 vintages of Hill of Grace were opened, with bottles from all six decades of its production. It was a devastating blow to miss the tasting, but I'm fortunate to have tasted this wine many times over the years from various decades, and I am convinced that it evolves into a graceful wine of expressiveness and "sense of place." The 2018 vintage was a beauty: warm, largely free from disease pressure and responsible for a suite of wines across the region that still today speak of vitality, energy and grace. It will go down as one of the greats of the past decade and likely more and, for me, is on par with the great 2015.