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| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 91.7 pts. and median of 92 pts. in 18 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by JulianSkeels on 10/23/2023 & rated 92 points: Nice initial perfume but this is distinctive for Edelatone (a wine I love), as it’s early picked. Wood - US and French - dominates the palate and finish and there isn’t quite enough fruit due to the early picking (which mutes the nose and sweetness). Almost red rather than black fruit. Finish is dry, tannic and woody - but with a hint of herbs and mint to provide class. Absolutely needs steak. One of my least favourite renditions but still class. 92pts, drink to 2025 (320 views) | | | Tasted by SadEdjo on 12/17/2022 & rated 93 points: like new cork; dark violet; heady, spicy nose; rich, fresh red & dark fruit, hint of camphor; well-integrated tannins, long spicy finish. Decades of youthful life left (676 views) | | | Tasted by rgawlowski on 7/21/2020 & rated 92 points: Elegant, but a bit flat compared to the 98, nice opulent nose, nice finish, but no nearly the same fruit, sweetness and complexity. (1388 views) | | | Tasted by starwalk on 3/20/2018 & rated 89 points: need to move the last 2 bottles on. (2218 views) | | | Tasted by sharonandroland on 5/2/2015 & rated 93 points: Extremely powerful and fresh for the age. (3542 views) | | | Tasted by sharonandroland on 3/29/2015 & rated 93 points: Extremely fresh for the age. Rich and deep. Hedonistic. (3297 views) | | | Tasted by Rani on 5/17/2012 & rated 92 points: Alas, this was my last bottle of the case and probably the best. Notes of blueberry, licorice and eucalyptus. Very smooth on the palate, with extra-fine tannins and a beautiful savory component that adds a dimension of chewiness to the wine. Lingering. Proof that old vine Aussie Shiraz should be aged. (4919 views) | | | Tasted by Rani on 10/13/2010 & rated 90 points: Slightly better than previous bottle drunk in London, but similar profile - eucalyptus, dry leaves, mellow and silky. An elegant wine. (4996 views) | | | Tasted by Anonymous on 10/10/2010 & rated 95 points: Drinking beautifully right now. The fat is gone and there is good balance and good acidity. Black cherry, plum, chocolate, mint, leather and tobacco. Complexity and depth across the palate. Excellent finish. Some characteristics are almost surprisingly Bordeaux-like. (4375 views) | | | Tasted by graemeg on 7/5/2010: NobleRottersSydney - Penfolds & Henschke - Top Shelf Shiraz (Alio's, Surry Hills): [14.4%, cork] {Ron} Opened and poured. Usually you’d seize on an Edelstone with both hands; tonight it was distinctly overshadowed. Developing, rather lightweight nose of fruity spices and red jams. The palate offers rather diffuse red fruits with spices, twigs and sticks; it’s quite developed and secondary although not without some interest, strong chalky tannins, medium acid and rather heavier weight than the nose promised all combining to present a just-not-compelling case. Length of finish isn’t great – a major handicap – all up it’s rather an odd mix of a wine, perhaps with a blend of under and over-ripe fruit as the starting point? Alcohol doesn’t stick out, but somehow the wine’s not really convincing. I still maintain that something went very wrong in the Henschke cellars from the 97-01 vintages; almost nothing of theirs in this period (except possibly the 98 Hill of Grace below) has been very convincing. (4217 views) | | | Tasted by Rani on 5/22/2010 & rated 89 points: Aussie WIMPS Lunch at The Ledbury (The Ledbury, London): Very smooth, medium weight. Lots of the tell-tale eucalyptus on the nose. Slightly minty on the palate. I don't think this will improve further. Drink now. (4212 views) | | | Tasted by spaniel on 1/8/2009 & rated 91 points: Ruby red. Nose of bright red fruits. Silky tannins. Great mouthfeel and well balanced. (2665 views) | | | Tasted by winefool on 10/21/2008 & rated 93 points: Soft full red color. Lovely nose of black cherry and eucalyptus with a bit of spice and briar undertones. Beautiful round black cherry on the palate with just a hint of sweet, but no jamminess. Long warm round structured finish. A very nice Edelstone drinking in it's peak window. Should last at least another 5 years, so no rush. (2486 views) | | | Tasted by Rani on 5/21/2007 & rated 92 points: This is a great Mt. Edelstone, and still very young. Nose of sweet black cherries, bacon and eucalyptus. Silky texture, with a sweet licorice-laced fruit core, followed by a long finish with fine dry tannins. A pleasure now and will do very nicely over the next decade methinks. (3058 views) | | | Tasted by CamWheeler on 10/30/2005 & rated 87 points: 1999 Barossa Shirazathon (Sydney, Australia): This did stand out as the odd one out in this flight on the nose. I got a whiff of spearmint and menthol and yes there were some earthy, horsy, savoury aromas and flavours, but in this case I though they added rather than detracted from the wine. (4057 views) | | | Tasted by AdamJP on 12/29/2004: Very dark ruby colour, deep at the rim. Fruity and vanilla aromas. Plum, cherry, spices and tobacco on the palate. Prominent tannins. Prolonged length. No sediment. Good, but not really worth the money! (701 views) |
| NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of The WINEFRONT and JancisRobinson.com and Vinous and Halliday Wine Companion. (manage subscription channels) |
| Henschke Producer website
FIRST GENERATION – 1803-1873
Johann Christian Henschke
Johann Christian Henschke, born on December 24, 1803, departed from Kutschlau in the province of Brandenburg in the summer of 1841, and after an ill-fated 98-day voyage aboard the Skjold, arrived in South Australia on October 27. His wife Appolonia Wilhelmine, and six-year-old son Johann Friedrich Wilhelm died during the voyage and were buried at sea; nine-month-old daughter Johanne Luise died while they were awaiting departure from Hamburg. Johann Christian’s brother, Johann Martin, and his family also made the journey aboard the Skjold, while their other brother, Johann Georg, and his family followed on the August in 1856.
Upon arrival, with his two surviving children (Johann Gottlieb and Johann August), Johann Christian stayed briefly at Klemzig and Hahndorf, before settling for a time at Lobethal in the Adelaide Hills, where in 1843 he married Dorothea Elisabeth Schmidt, with whom he was to have eight more children. In 1847, after Johann Christian and many of the other Lobethal founders became naturalised and eligible to purchase land, he and his family” settled at Krondorf village near Bethany in the Barossa Valley, where the house and outbuildings still stand today.
In 1862 he purchased land in the North Rhine district (later renamed Keyneton) of the Barossa Range, so named because it was thought the area was capable of producing good quality wine. Initially travelling by foot from Krondorf to North Rhine, he started to develop his property by adopting the traditional self-sufficient farming methods of his homeland, and with the help of his son Paul Gotthard, planted a small vineyard. A farmer and mason by trade, Johann Christian built a small two-storey cellar into the side of the hill for the first vintages of riesling and shiraz, with the first sales in 1868.
THE FIFTH GENERATION
Being mindful of their role as custodians
Stephen and Prue continue to craft their white wines with a focus on purity, while their red wines have a strong focus on terroir, using traditional winemaking techniques.
“Prue and I are the current ‘keepers of the flame’. Just as earlier generations have done, we want to manage the vineyards and winery so they can be passed on to the next generation in better condition than we inherited them. The last 50 years have been an incredible journey for the Australian wine industry. Hill of Grace and Mount Edelstone are arguably the two oldest single vineyard wines produced in this country that tell the wine story of Australia. Our vision would not be complete without the expectation that future generations will uphold and perpetuate our belief that such ancient and unique single-vineyard sites can produce exceptional wines that are prized for their beauty and rarity.”
– Stephen Henschke
Henschke Shiraz Mount EdelstoneA wine of storied tradtion from near the top of the Henschke range. The Mount Edelstone vineyard is in the Eden Valley and was planted in 1912 by Ronald Angas, a descendant of George Fife Angas, a founder of 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 bring low yields from the 102-year-old dry-grown, ungrafted centenarian vines. First bottled as a single-vineyard wine in 1952, it is recognised as one of Australia’s greatest Shiraz wines.
Its Origins
Henschke have a long history in Australian wine, and their story is similar to many European families who have reached the very top of their field: building on the best aspects of tradition while integrating the finest modern thinking and methodology. Johann Christian Henschke was a Sliesian refugee who came to Australia in 1841 seeking religious freedom. In 1862 he planted the first vineyard on his property in Keyneton South Australia, in the now famous Eden Vale, with the first wine released six years later. Fourth generation Cyril Henschke laid the foundation for the company’s modern success by looking beyond the fortified styles of the day to develop their first ‘serious’ single-varietal and single-vineyard wines, in particular the now-legendary Shiraz wines ‘Hill of Grace’ and ‘Mount Edelstone’.
Today the fifth generation are if anything stronger, with the team of winemaker Stephen Henschke and his viticulturalist wife Prue having established the label at the pinnacle of not only Australian but world winemaking. The exceptional skill and appropriate technology brought to bear in the winery, and organic and biodynamic principles in the vineyard, are far more than doing justice to the tradition they are part of...and the extremely old vines they have in their care. Some of these vines are 100 years old - and on their original rootstocks - while vines in the Hill of Grace vineyard are likewise on original rootstocks, though some date back as far as the 1860s.
The beautiful and historic name Mount Edelstone is a translation from the German Edelstein meaning ‘gemstone’, a reference to small yellow opals once found in the area. The Mount Edelstone Vineyard was planted in 1912 by Ronald Angas, a descendant of George Fife Angas who founded The South Australian Company and played a significant part in the formation and establishment of South Australia. Unusual for its time, the vineyard was planted solely to shiraz. The ancient 500-million-year-old geology in the vineyard has given rise to soils that are deep red-brown clay-loam to clay, resulting in low yields from the dry-grown, ungrafted centenarian vines. First bottled as a single-vineyard wine in 1952 by fourth-generation Cyril Henschke. By the time Cyril purchased the vineyard from Colin Angas in 1974, Mount Edelstone was already well entrenched as one of Australia’s greatest shiraz wines. Crafted by the Henschke family for 65 years now, Mount Edelstone is arguably the longest consecutively-produced, single-vineyard wine in Australia.
MOUNT EDELSTONE VINEYARD TODAY
The vines are planted on their own roots, are dry grown and yield an average of 3 t/ha (1.25 t/acre). The vines are planted on a wide spacing of 3.7m between vines and 3.7m between rows. The original one-metre trellis consists of two wires which carry two to three arched canes with a bud number of around 50 to 60. The foliage is allowed to hang down to form a drooping canopy, which helps to reduce shoot vigour.
In 1989 Prue trialled 10 rows of a Scott Henry trellis in which the shoots from the top wire canes are trained upwards between foliage wires and the shoots from the bottom wire canes are trained downwards between foliage wires. The effect of this solar panel system is to provide a significant increase in exposure of the leaves and fruit to the sun, thereby increasing fruitfulness and promoting earlier ripening and a greater increase in colour and flavour of the fruit and improved tannin maturity.
This trellis has had such a positive impact on the quality of the wine that over three quarter of the vineyard has now been converted to it. Other trellis trials were also being evaluated including VSP (Vertical Shoot Positioned), high single wire, Smart Dyson and ballerina.
The Mount Edelstone vineyard is underlain entirely by laminated siltstones of the Tapley Hill Formation. The soils are fine sandy loams over deep gravelly medium red clays. The soil layer goes to a significant depth before reaching the bedrock. The pale mottled clay/clay loam layer indicates that a large degree of leaching and periodic waterlogging has occurred. Rocks beneath the red clay soils are schists of Cambrian age. These are metamorphosed mineral-rich sediments, originally deposited in a shallow sea, then deeply buried, and finally pushed back up to the surface where they weathered to produce a thick soil layer.
Originally the ground was cultivated for weed control. Nowadays the vineyard has a permanent sward including native grasses. A mulch of wheat straw is used under the vines to retain soil moisture, build up organic matter, and inhibit weed growth. Prediction of disease pressure through an integrated pest management program results in minimal chemical input in the vineyard. The vineyard management incorporates organic and biodynamic practices, including composted grape marc, cow pit peat, 500 and 501 preparations, milk whey and bicarbonate sprays.
The grapes are picked mid to late April at a sugar level of around 24°Bé. There is always a remarkable acid/pH balance from this vineyard. The anthocyanins in the berries are very high which indicates the superior quality of the Mount Edelstone shiraz.
Prue began a mass selection program in 1986 to identify the best vines for propagation. With her assistant Uschi Linssen she tagged and mapped selected vines in the vineyard for viticultural features during the growing season using criteria such as even budburst, absence of the wood-rotting fungus eutypa, bunch numbers per shoot, the evenness of flowering and veraison, virus, and maturity and colour figures in the fruit. It was painstaking work, which also included a similar selection of the Hill of Grace vineyard.
Cuttings from the selected vines were planted in the nursery. The research work is ongoing and is a scientific program that has taken up to 30 years to work through. Cuttings have been taken from the nursery vines, propagated, and planted as needed in the vineyard to replace old vines that have expired from dying arm, Eutypa lata.Shiraz Varietal article (Wikipedia) | Varietal character (Appellation America)Australia Wine Australia (Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation) | Australian Wines (Wikipedia)South Australia South Australian Wine Industry Association | South Australian Wines (Wikipedia)Barossa Barossa Wine (South Australian Tourism Commission) |
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