Henschke 2019: Single-vineyard releases

Stephen and Prue Henschke are in relaxed form. Vintage 2024 is a fortnight away and, says a beaming Stephen, Henschke’s fifth generation winemaker: ‘The fruit looks amazing.’

Frost fans might cost AU$55,000 apiece, but chief viticulturist Prue notes approvingly: ‘They did their job this year and we have sailed into a pretty nice vintage.’

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for Henschke’s 2019 single-vineyard releases

Double frost, then hail

It was far from plain sailing in 2019 however. This Scylla and Charybdis year served a double helping of frost just after budburst and again at flowering. A fortnight later, a hailstorm ‘basically wiped out anything of size’ according to Prue. She bristles as she recalls ‘the feeling of devastation when you see your crop turn into little fizzled rats’ tails’.

Shiraz bore the brunt of the hailstorm and 2019 is also a red alert vintage for Henschke fans because, with exceptionally warm and dry conditions too, average yields were 50% down. Mind-bogglingly, average yields for the 2020 vintage were even lower – half of 2019. Some Shiraz blocks produced nothing and Shiraz bunch weights were a measly 80-100g, versus 150g/bunch normally.

Although these vintages of the Eden Valley producer’s iconic single-vineyard Shiraz wines will be thin on the ground, Stephen says: ‘We’re actually very lucky to have that much.’ He observes: ‘Other growers wouldn’t even have bothered to pick, but it is important to make [these wines] for history and posterity, even if the crop is miserably low and I have to send out a search party to find it!’

‘A vintage graced by the nurturer’

In this challenging year, it was imperative to protect and optimise the quality of those precious few Shiraz grapes left after the frost and hail. Highlighting Prue’s uber-green fingers, Henschke has dubbed 2019: ‘A vintage graced by the nurturer’. Drawing on her scientific training in botany, zoology and viticulture, Prue’s long-term investment in regenerative viticulture and organic and biodynamic practices paid off handsomely in 2019.

During the couple’s studies at Geisenheim University in the 1970s, Prue had seen permanent swards (an expanse of short grass) everywhere in Germany. In the Rheingau producers topped up soil lost to erosion every year. It meant that, from the outset of Prue’s tenure at Henschke in the 1980s, she understood the importance of not tilling the earth and leaving a permanent sward to protect the fragile soils of the family’s aged Eden Valley vineyards.

Following many trials, the native wallaby grass that surrounded the vineyards now carpets it too. This sward does not need mowing, it competes with weeds, is dormant during the vines’ growing season (and so does not compete with them) and, crucially, preserves soil moisture. ‘If you look at the native forests, they always have a heavy load of dry leaf matter on soil and it’s there for a reason,’ explains Prue.

Down to earth

That said, in 2019 Prue believes ‘the big saviour’ of the dry-grown vineyards was the biodynamic compost she makes from cow manure and hen egg shells, which is covered with under-vine straw mulch on a three year cycle. When Prue first started using mulch 14 years ago, it was seen as ‘eccentric’ says Stephen. ‘Other vineyard managers said she was going to kill the vines.’ Undeterred, ‘Prue just said: “You wait and see!”’ he adds proudly.

In a year in which South Australia’s Adelaide set the record for the highest temperature ever recorded in an Australian city – peaking at 46.6℃ on 19 January – ‘everything was topped up’ says Prue. Why? Because soil temperatures under this thick under-vine layer of mulch and compost on a hot day are a moisture-preserving 25-28℃, versus a vaporising 50℃ at the surface.

‘A great example of a really tough vintage’

Stephen, who took charge of winemaking 45 years ago, is happy with the balance of the resulting wines. He rates the 2019s as: ‘A great example of a really tough vintage.’ After rigorous selection, the precious surviving grapes were treated with tender loving care in Henschke’s ‘spas’. These are the smaller stainless steel version of the winery’s traditional open concrete fermenters, whose capacity was too big for 2019’s miniscule yields.

‘Because the fruit was riper and smaller, with potentially more stressed tannins and a stronger tannin ratio, we didn’t want to [over]-extract,’ explains Stephen. So the ferments were cooler, with no plunging, instead relying on the submerged cap ‘for a gentle alcoholic leaching’.

The 2019 Shiraz releases are distinguished by a fine but powerful charge of structured tannins, which Stephen describes as having ‘a naturally nutty savouriness’. At this early stage, it keeps the fruit on the back foot compared with recent vintages.

But there can be little doubt about the fruit concentration of these darkly brooding wines. No question either about the baked in pungency – as opposed to lifted fragrance – of the classic herb and spice notes found in Mount Edelstone and Hill of Grace.

Tasted over four days, they retained impressive freshness and line for the year and, effortlessly mopping up the oak (20% new), allowed both vineyard and vintage shine.

Statuesque Shiraz

Because some blocks did not produce, and since Mount Edelstone was picked on 18 March and Hill of Grace on 8 March – as opposed to being harvested over a week as usual – they are particularly statuesque, perhaps unique even, in a year which offered fewer blending options.

In contrast, picked between 10-15 April, Cyril Henschke Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 is fragrant and distinctly (indeed, irresistibly) broachable in this low-yielding year, although it will age for decades.

Museum releases

Conscious that the flagship 2019 Shiraz wines are in such short supply, Henschke is also releasing two Museum and Rare vintages from its family reserves.

From a warm dry year that produced regular yields, Hill of Grace 2008 is bountiful and plush, with opulent all-new oak. In 2013, a warm, dry and exceptionally low-yielding year, Mount Edelstone shares the firmer, rail-like tannin structure of the 2019 releases.

Youthfully primary with great palate presence and line, it provides a better window on how one might expect Mount Edelstone and Hill of Grace 2019 to develop: slowly. This Shiraz vintage is a keeper.

Henschke 2019: Single-vineyard wines plus other new releases

The 2019 vintages of Hill of Grace, Hill of Roses, Mount Edelstone, The Wheelwright and Cyril Henschke are available from the Henschke cellar door and at (henschke.com.au), in the UK via importer Liberty Wines and in the US via Winebow from 1 May 2024.

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