A limited release Old Vine Shiraz, from fruit of peerless quality, picked off precious family managed sites around the ancient hamlets of Ebenezer and Tappa Pass. Barossa Valley is unique in the world of wine for its heritage of devoted growers, descended from the earliest Lutheran settlers. They are often blessed by a harvest of the most extraordinary fruit. Henschke are well positioned to take advantage and retain the best of the best, treating the finest Barossa Shiraz to a regimen of timeless and traditional, old world vinification techniques.

Exceptional Langtons Classification. From vines almost a century of age, established to a superior Eden Valley site, selected by one of the nation's most venerable viticulturalists. Deep loam soils and a Mediterranean climate, refreshed by cool nights, permit a slow ripening which encourages the ancient vines to yield parcels of the most extraordinary Shiraz grapes. Inaugurally bottled as a single vineyard edition in 1952, with a provenance that's second to none, Mount Edelstone represents a bespoke rival to the mighty Hill of Grace.

Exceptional Langtons Classification. Edelstone means gemstone, the vineyard itself is a single delineated historic site, planted in the early 1900s on the eastern slopes of a hill bearing the same name. Low yielding, ancient dry grown vines, an extraordinary quality of fruit and traditional hands on vinification are essential to one of the nation's most venerated Old-Vine Shiraz. Henschke first released a pure Edelstone Vineyard wine in 1952, it is internationally recognised as Australia's great first growths of Shiraz.

Johann Christian Henschke purchased land around the tiny village of Keyneton in 1861 after fleeing religious persecution in Silesia. Keyneton grew to become a cultural focus for early Barossa settlers, not least of all was the Henschke Family Brass Band! The B flat euphonium, imported to Australia from Leipzig in the late nineteenth century by musical entrepreneur Carl Engel of Adelaide, was the Henschke favourite. Just like the namesake Henschke wine, a euphonium exhibits warmer and more subtle tonal qualities than it's louder modern counterparts.

A tribute to the early Lutheran pioneers, many of whom carried Johann as their first name. Two thirds Grenache, with the balance of Mourvedre and Shiraz, all from low yielding, old and gnarled, dry farmed, bush grown and trellised Barossa vineyards. These precious sites yield parcels of parched but intensely flavoured fruit, in smaller berry and bunch size, exuding rare generosity and remarkable warmth. A richly concentrated palate, beautifully soft and textural, supported by fine grained tannins and a long, savoury finish.

From a small block of younger vines on the illustrious Hill Of Grace Vineyard in Valley Eden. The precious block was planted during the 1990s around the ruins of an ancient post office, on a property name after Gottlieb Rosenzweig rose twig, one of the early Lutheran settlers who established his homestead at nearby Parrot Hill. Matured eighteen months in a high selection of new French oak hogsheads, Hill of Roses is marked by its exceptional finesse, licorice notes, blackberry and cassis, a measure of tittilating five spice on the seemingly endless, creamy tannin finish.

Exceptional Langtons Classification. Over 165 years ago, Johann Christian Henschke came from Silesia to settle in the Eden Valley. His legacy is one of Australia's great luxury brands. By the time third generation Paul Alfred Henschke took over the reins in 1914, the famous Hill of Grace Shiraz vines were more than fifty years old. A fully endowed, engaging wine in old world styling, Hill of Grace unlocks layers of complexity as it breathes and evolves in the glass. Vintage 2006 shaped up as another high quality year, with a growing season which reduced the yields.

Exceptional Langtons Classification. Hill of Grace is a unique delineated single historic vineyard, one of the nation's earliest plantings. The site lies opposite a beautiful old Lutheran Church, built of local field stone, which was euphoniously named Gnadenberg.

Exceptional Langtons Classification. Exclusively Hill of Grace Shiraz from pre-phylloxera material planted around the 1860s by Henschke ancestor, Nicolaus Stanitzki, to rich alluvial soils on a shallow fertile valley just northwest of the winery. Searing heat for vintage 2004 caused sunburn and significant crop losses. New records were broken with South Australia experiencing its hottest day ever. March returned the region to glorious sunny days and cold dewy nights, allowing the fruit to ripen under near perfect conditions, delivering a harvest of excellent quality.

Exceptional Langtons Classification. Crafted from the hand picked fruit of national heirloom blocks ranging between 52 and 144 years of age, Hill of Grace is Australia's most prestigious, first growth, single vineyard wine.

A pure, single vineyard wine from Shiraz grapes picked off pre phylloxera material brought to the Barossa by European settlers in the mid 1800s. Vinified from the fruit of vines up to a century and a half of age, to be luxuriously aged under a selection of completely new oak for eighteen months. Australia's finest and most distinguished single vineyard wine.

Exceptional Langtons Classification. Hill of Grace is a place of great international renown in the world of wine, the most historically significant vineyard in Australia, planted circa 1860 by early Lutheran settlers fleeing persecution. Home to some of the globe's most precious blocks of Shiraz, it lies opposite a beautiful old Lutheran Church named Gnadenberg.

Hill of Grace is a magnificent Eden Valley Shiraz, fashioned from vineyard blocks up to a century and a half of age. Full bodied and stunningly perfumed, endowed with a concentration of spellbinding old vine characters, the distinguished and compelling Hill of Grace is acclaimed internationally as one of the new world's great first growths in wine.

Hill of Grace is surely one of the most evocative phrases in the world of wine. For Henschke it is the name of both the vineyard and the wine that has so captured the heart of the wine world. The eight hectare vineyard on the original thirty hectare block sits at an altitude of 400 metres, an isolated spot that was once a village. The oldest blocks are a century and a half of age, they are called upon to provide the backbone of fruit, vinified alongside parcels from younger old vines which are all a minimum fifty years of age.

One of the new world's great single vineyard wines, celebrated internationally as much for the heritage of its ancient vines, as for the artisanal craftsmanship and skill of the winemaker. Stephen Henschke has retained the traditional approach to viticulture and vinification as employed by his forefathers. The key to the enduring success for Hill of Grace, comes down to the care of ancestral vineyard blocks and a holistic approach that has been passed down from generation to generation.

Exceptional Langtons Classification. Henschke take a puristic, holistic approach that has been passed down from generation to generation and has now become intuitive. A pure single vineyard wine of spectacular concentration, Hill of Grace is a wonderfully complex old vine Shiraz that unfolds more flavours and perfumes as it evolves in the glass.

Exceptional Langtons Classification. Henschke take a minimalist approach to handling the precious fruit of a great historical vineyard. Excessive handling, racking or movements of the wine are avoided, every opportunity is given for the fruit to speak for itself. Earthy and mineral, concentrated with the explosive black bramble characters of a superior Vallée du Rhône, cossetted by a veneer of new oak ferments and endowed with the most refined, elegant tannins.

Exceptional Langtons Classification. One of the world's great vineyards, Hill of Grace is preserved through the efforts of Prue and Stephen Henschke, as they employ a regimen of traditional agricultural techniques which would have been familiar to Australia's earliest pioneers. The site was originally chosen for its auspicious mesoclime, it remains the source of the nation's most exceptional single vineyard wine. Shiraz grown to the pre phyloxera vines a century and a half of age, is minimally handled, allowing the outstanding quality of fruit to speak for itself.

One of the few quality releases, out of what was a lesser vintage around Australia. Inconsistent weather patterns, followed by February heatwaves, made unremarkable wines everywhere, some of the Barossa and Eden Valley vineyards however, somehow managed to pull through and yield parcels of superior quality fruit. Hill of Grace delivered an elegant wine, perfumed with violets and sweet red fruits, concentrated with flavour and supported by a length of caramel vanilla oak, a perfect balance and endless finish.

Vintage 1988 brought a harvest of the most outstanding Shiraz to Valley Eden. A smaller yield due to spring frosts, the bulk of the growing season was long, warm and dry, ideal for Henschke vineyards. A highly memorable Hill of Grace, the grapes came in early and in superb condition, the finished wine was characterized by a spectacular concentration of Eden Valey Shiraz fruit characters.

Vintage 1985 proved too hot and dry for most vineyards within the environs of Eden and Barossa Valleys. Severely reduced crops for most South Australian wineries were further decimated by the ravages of a very wet autumn. Henschke's Eden Valley fruit was saved largely by it's protective Shangrila topography, a unique mesoclime which yields the most precious harvests while maintaining the excellence of Australia's finest single vineyard wine.

A long period of drought was broken by welcomed rains early in the 1984 growing season, which heralded an opportunity to produce a good harvest. The weather turned warm at vintage, finishing a good year with favourable conditions. Slightly more restrained and reserved than releases from similarly warm years, the old Eden Valley vines yielded Shiraz of tight fruit character and exquisite balance, Henschke Hill of Grace again led the way.

A disastrous vintage across most winegrowing regions, vintage 1983 was one which most Australian winemakers would rather forget. Wildfires such as the cataclysmic Ash Wednesday, hail, drought and heat, it all happened in 1983. Somehow, the Henschke vineyards, cocooned around the higher Eden Valley ranges, seemed to rise above the adversities of vintage and produce a very fine Hill of Grace. A refined Shiraz wine of judicious background oak and good concentration of articulate, old vine Shiraz characters.

A favourable summer, experiencing warm and even temperatures was preceded by much welcomed rains, which nourished the Henschke vineyards early in the growing season. The vines were highly stimulated by the superb conditions of vintage 192, unfettered by climactic setbacks, Shiraz ripened beautifully, the batches of fruit came in on time and in remarkable shape. Henschke remain dedicated to the sustainable management of the grand old vines, applying regimens of viticulture which would have been familiar to forebears, a century and a half ago.

A growing season which proved too hot and dry for most vineyards across South Australia, budburst and fruit set were a disappointment, bringing softer yields which continued to diminish throughout the summer. The Henschke wines from 1981 stood out brilliantly, as traditional viticulture and generations of accumulated skill make an essential contribution. Hill of Grace was spared the excesses ofe vintage, yielding exquisite grapes with ripe tannin levels, ideal for flavour development. A genuine, but rare class effort from the vexed 1981 vintage.

Henschke is one of the longest established names in the Barossa. Johann Christian Henschke purchased land for a farm at Keyneton in 1861, after fleeing religious persecution in Silesia. He planted a small vineyard and an orchard. After initially making wine for family consumption, he produced his first commercial vintage in 1868. Each generation built upon the reputation for quality, but it was fourth generation Cyril Alfred Henschke, who in 1958, created the wine that has most captured the wine world's imagination, Hill of Grace.

Hill of Grace, the name of the vineyard and the wine that has so captured the heart of Shiraz cohorts around the world, shared an unfavourable growing season alongside most of Australia's winegrowing regions. Hot and dry throughout summer, a prolonged wet autumn, tested the ancient vines, and the superlative skill of the Henschke growers. Nevertheless, 1979 produced a delicate and refined Hill of Grace, worthy of the name's stature. A lighter, sweeter, pleasantly plump and jammy wine with ripe, brambly fruit, oak influence and supple, soft tannins.

Hill of Grace came delivered a majestic and long lived Shiraz in vintage 1978. The growing season was dry but temperate, unhampered by environmental vagaries, the old vine fruit was allowed to develop to textbook ripeness, the finished wine represents a classic Australian red of richness and longevity. Honest, earthy and tarry, an almost porty ripe Shiraz, vintage 1978 initially exhibited fleshiness and lively sweet fruit combined with a firm tannic backbone. An honest and generous edition with integrated oak and supple finish.

Exceptional Langtons Classification. One of the new world's most renowned marques in Shiraz, a wine of stature which carries a pedigree that only Lutheran consecrated, Eden Valley vines can impart. You expect something very special from the prestigious Hill of Grace and Henschke truly delivers. A lush, pure and sweet offering with all the essences of complex old vine Shiraz, intensely perfumed and solidly structured, on a length of velvety soft tannins.

Exceptional Langtons Classification. Hill of Grace is surely one of the most evocative phrases in the world of wine, capturing the heart of red wine lovers everywhere. The vineyard lies opposite a beautiful old Lutheran Church, built of local field stone and named Gnadenberg which translates into Hill of Grace. Cyril Henschke, the fourth generation, made the first single vineyard Hill of Grace wine in 1958. The original vines are now a century and a half of age.

Excellent Langtons Classification. Cyril was the fourth generation of Henschke winemakers, a visionary who bottled the original Hill Of Grace and formulated one of the world's great Shiraz. Cyril acquired his Eden Valley vineyard in 1966, establishing a large planting of predominantly Riesling and Shiraz at a time when bonuses were being paid by national brands for the popular varietals. Smaller plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot followed, unfashionable at the time, they have become essential components to the final mix of fruit in Henschke Cyril.

Excellent Langtons Classification. Mostly Cabernet with a minor component of Merlot, all grown to the Henschke Eden Valley property. Cyril was the fourth generation of the Henschke family, one of Australia's great winemaking pioneers and the man who in 1958 created the wine that has so captured the heart of red wine drinkers around the world, Hill of Grace. By the mid 1950s Cyril Henschke was well acknowledged as one of the leading pioneers in the Australian wine industry. He recognised the quality of Eden Valley fruit to be superior to that of the popular Barossa.

An opulent accord of the most superior single vineyard Adelaide Hills Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, picked off Stephen and Prue Henschke's exceptional site at Lenswood. This eminently distinguished vineyard was established among the historical homesteads along Coldstore Road by the first settler T N Mitchell in the late 1800s, these prestigious parcels are known to locals as Abbotts Flat. The property yields the most superlative quality Merlot to be found anywhere on the Adelaide Hills.

Cabernet Sauvignon has always been a speciality of Helm. A trip to Bordeaux inspired winemaker Ken Helm and grower Al Lustenburger to perfect the most profound constructs of Cabernet Sauvignon. The Canberra district is perfectly suited to growing this noble grape, as the mesoclimes, so similar to those of Bordeaux, are influenced by trade winds during summer which carry a whiff of sea salt and stimulate the vines. Helm's inaugural vintage immediately attracted praise from the industry press and claimed significant wine show awards.

Vintaged from a single block of magnificent old vines on the cooler climes of Eden Valley high. Heirloom are all about identifying and rejuvenating superior parcels, a patient and painstaking approach to the resurrection of venerable elder plantings, for the realization of profoundly structured, powerful yet elegant wines. Nothing less than the most superior bunches of Eden Vally Shiraz, open fermented and aged in the luxury of the finest French coopered oak, A'Lambra is remarkable for its purity of dark bramble fruit, black velvet textures and refined, graceful tannins.

There are few places on earth, so predisposed to yielding vintages of world class Shiraz. Slaughterhouse Paddock is the second oldest block of vine in all Heathcote, originally a cattle yard adjacent to the township meatworks, its soils enriched for viticulture by the passage of livestock. Hand picked whole bunches are open fermented in the traditional old world style, building sound structure and infusing splendid weight of fruit. A fleshy Terra rosa palate of intensity and concentration, preceded by peppermint and eucalypt perfumes, adorned by the dulcet vanilla sweetness of new American oak.

Single vineyard wine from the Newlans Lane block at the very heart of Heathcote, the original block of Shiraz planted to the earliest survey of red Cambrian soils, established for the historical Heathcote wineworks. The old, dry grown vines, replenished by propitious underground aquifers, are treated to just the right amount of moisture to yield harvests of impeccable quality fruit. A sensational accord of old vine Shiraz and French oak, coalesce into a seductive complexity, white pepper notes and dark fruit flowing seamlessly on the lingering mocha finish.

Financial powerhouses Robert Kirby and Louis Bialkower collaborate with winemaking superstars Larry McKenna and Tod Dexter, to work on a selection of Heathcote's most spectacular parcels of Shiraz. The Messrs Kirby and Bialkower are fascinated by fine wine, especially the soft and medium bodied styles of French. What distinguishes Heathcote Estate Shiraz stylistically, are the techniques of vinification borrowed from the old world methods of Burgundy, open top ferments, whole bunch inclusion and hand plunging.

The ultimate excellence of wine is the only priority at Heathcote Estate and no expenses are spared, only the most outstanding quality fruit is ever considered. A sublime bottling of the swarthiest juices, pressed from the fermented musts of the most exquisite parcels Shiraz, grown to the most exceptional terroirs, a single, superior planting of vine along Drummonds Lane at Heathcote. A year's maturation in the pick of luxury French oak puncheons, achieves a alluringly perfumed wine of jet black fruit flavours over an elegant carriage of polished, rosewood tannins.

The artisanal approach employed by Heathcote Estate induced winemaking maestros Todd Dexter and Larry McKenna to join founders Robert and Mem Kirby. Together, they realize an uncompromising pursuit of assembling the finest growths of Australian wine. Block F is an exceptionally detailed, single site Shiraz, from an elite parcel of vine, planted to a north facing slope of ancient, green Cambrian shards along Drummonds Lane. Its tightly packed, gunflint and graphite rich, savoury tannins in support of a broad spectrum of vibrant fruit flavours.

What defines Heathcote Estate Shiraz stylistically, is the sterling excellence of fruit, as treated to the old world vinification techniques which emulate the great growths of Burgundy and the Medoc. The intensely concentrated grapes of Block C are all hand picked and gently destemmed into traditional open top fermenters, a measure of whole bunches added for tannin richness. Hand plunged and pressed into 500 litre French oak puncheons for completion of malolactic and a term of age, its opulent, expansive palate, brimming with black fruits, milled spice and ripe, fleshy plum.

Block 2 was planted to the renowned Houghton clone of Cabernet on a steep northerly slope of optimal sunlight in the early 1970s. The old, dry grown vines have sunk deep roots into the gravelly loam soils and yield a harvest of superlative fruit with each vintage. Grapes are de stemmed into open top fermenters, treated to hand pumpovers and maceration on skins for optimal extraction, followed by eighteen months maturation in French oak barriques. A voluminous palate, substantial by Margaret River standards, driven by fleshy dark fruit and underpinned by the ripest tannins.

The inaugural release of Hanging Rock Shiraz was vintage 1987 and what an event it was, immediately claiming gold and inspiring comparisons to Grange by the industry press. From from fruit grown to the estate Athols Paddock, a complex Heathcote style, more Syrah than Shiraz, boasting several trophies and over fifty gold to its distinguished history, big, powerful and rich, yet exhibiting an elegance and finesse that's rare in Australian wine. Have it today alongside braised hare with a tarragon red wine jus, venison or osso bucco.