Hill of Grace, Henschke 2021

The 2021 Hill of Grace Shiraz comes from a vineyard that sits at 400 metres 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 characterised 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.

Good depth of lightly purple-rimmed colour; the bouquet is a riot of dried herb scents from thyme to sage and oregano with smoky black pepper, vegetable stock, red and darker fruits including raspberry, dark plum and blackberry. The wine is full-bodied and flows evenly across the tongue, with an effortless intensity and suppleness of texture. Fine tannins are an important part of the very long, high-impact aftertaste. A superb wine of intricate detail and elegance.

From one of the oldest extant vineyards in the world, let alone Australia. The soils have a beautiful layer of loess, around 30 cm, over a red/brown earth. This varies from one hectare to the next: underneath can be a silty clay, or a limestone ridge, or schist. In one block there is actually a scree on top of the red/brown earth, which gives earlier ripening. There are 8 hectares at Hill of Grace, and each block is different. The wine is a combination of 6 small blocks within the vineyard, with different characteristics. ‘We can see the flavour differences,’ says Stephen. ‘There are subtle flavour difference between the different parts of the vineyard.’ These blocks are picked over about a week. This has brooding aromatics of sweet blackberry and black cherry fruit with some dried herbs and pepper, as well as subtle tar, black tea, five spices, pot pourri and wood spice, but all the time focusing on the fruit. The palate has amazing concentration but it’s never heavy or dense, with a bright acid line and a sense of elegance. There’s some tannin here and also good acidity, with complex mint, ginger, lavender and tar notes, finishing bright and vital. Of course, this will age for a long time. Remarkable and profound, displaying its origins, and even approachable now, although there’s a big upside to be gained from cellaring.

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.

Stephen and Prue reported there was enough fruit in 2021 to allow picking, block by block, and in perfect harmony. Hill of Grace benefits from the afternoon heat, resulting in a darker, deeper core than the other wines. While its scale is breathtakingly impressive, there is thrilling elegance here, too. This is a spectacular wine from start to finish, with every molecule in its place. There is a complete directory of this vineyard’s flavours on display in this wine, seemingly cataloguing every nuance from the glorious, inaugural 1958 until the present day and delivering them in epic harmony. It seems to embrace its ancient history and communicate it in a thoroughly modern language, and while you can taste it today and marvel at its greatness, I think I am only privy to around 80% of its potential. Over the ensuing two decades, we might be able to add a per cent or two more insight into just how magnificent this wine is, culminating in a perfect 20/20 vision of a perfect 20/20 wine around 2045, whereupon it will hold for those with even more patience! What a privilege. 2021 is a genuinely humbling wine, and it represents another chapter of wonder in the legend of this ancient land.