Henschke Hill of Grace Shiraz Eden Valley 2021

Andrew Caillard MW
100/100 punten
"Medium deep crimson. Expressive raspberry, blackberry, cassis, hint elderberry/violet/ sage aromas with mocha, marzipan notes. Elegant yet powerful, dense but buoyant palate with ample blackberry pastille, blackcurrant, raspberry fruits, fine supple/ grainy tannins, lovely mid palate volume/ richness and superbly balanced grilled almond, roasted chestnut notes. Finishes claret firm with a featherweight plume of bittersweet tannins. A beguiling and lasting landmark Hill of Grace vintage with wonderful definition, vinosity and torque."

James Suckling
99/100 punten
"Incredibly fresh and refined, with deeply brooding notes of dark plums, mocha, graphite, five spice and cured meat. The palate is ultra-refined and pure, with balanced acidity, seamlessly integrated tannins and a creamy texture, showing complex notes of mulberries, cassia bark, pepper, violets and licorice. It is truly exceptional, and is an icon of Australia for a reason. Made from vines that are over 150 years old. Brilliant."

James Halliday
99/100 punten
"This release will go down in the annals of Australian fine wine as one of the classic releases for Hill of Grace. With a strong vintage and even stronger pedigree, the gnarled old, circa 1860s-planted, shiraz vines have really come up with the goods with this release and as I sit to taste this wine with Stephen Henschke he shakes his head and says, "it just amazes me that my grandmother's grandfather planted these vines". The eagle-eyed will notice a skip in vintage. The yields were down horribly in 2020 across all the Henschke vineyards but man, did 2021 deliver. Super bright magenta/crimson in the glass with a wonderfully deep aromatic profile. Doris plum, blackberry and black cherry with hints of mace, sage, panforte, cedar, dark chocolate, tapenade, pepper, charcuterie, graphite, crushed quartz and violets. From the aromatic detail to the amplitude, purity and flow of fruit, the wine is absolutely on song with stunning length of flavour and presence on the palate, sailing away slowly with tight, fine-grained tannins and the most graceful of travels on the palate. An absolute classic for this wine."

Decanter
98/100 punten
"The pre-phylloxera vines planted on their own roots stretch out in front of the beautiful old Lutheran Gnadenberg church, whose name translates to ‘Hill of Grace’. At the moment the wine is tightly coiled, but time in the glass allows it to open up and reveal layers that hint at its potential for mature splendour. The list of fruit characters is long – there’s red plum, cedarwood, bitter cocoa, Szechuan peppercorns, blood oranges and garrigue – but as soon as you list one flavour you’re struck by a completely different note. There’s nothing shouty about this wine, just subtle waves of flavour that roll over the palate, effortless balance and a finish that stretches towards infinity. Yes, it’s expensive, but it comes pretty darn close to perfection."

Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
98/100 punten
"The 2021 Hill of Grace Shiraz comes from a vineyard that sits at 400 meters above sea level—a beautiful, remote-feeling place. The vineyard is picked block by block, defined by vine age, soil types, elevation and position within the vineyard. The older vines within the vineyard tend to hold their acidity and retain lower pH with higher natural acidity than the younger vines, which also assists in determining the parcels. "Ironically, this is the simplest wine to make; it's the vineyard that produces the wine like this. It's due to the work in the vineyard over many generations," says Stephen Henschke. So, to the wine. It is pure and fine, with a languid pool of fruit that is characterized by black silty tannins and persistent, seamless length. This speaks of the ancient place, the rocks, the vines. This is just a magnificent, graceful wine here, one that is "immune to hyperbole," as they say. 14.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. The Wheelwright vineyard has 50-year-old vines, Mount Edelstone is over 100 years old, and the ancestor vines in the Hill of Grace vineyard are aver 150 years old."

Jancis Robinson MW
18++/20 punten
"Along with Penfolds Grange, Australia's pride and joy. But this time from a single ancient vineyard on a small family estate. Based on pre-phylloxera plants imported from Europe in the mid 1800s. Red-brown earth grades to silty loam which is good at holding moisture, much needed by these extraordinary old, dry-grown vines. Not produced in 1960, 1974, 2000 and 2011. Transparent crimson. So much going on here! So sweet and richly medicinal initially and then amazingly fresh on the finish. Ambitious framework with the fruit bouncing off the beams of that framework. Lots of energy here. A baby, but a very beautiful one. 24 hours after opening the wine was still bedazzling and had arguably changed a little less than the Hill of Roses 2021."