Henschke

There’s a long history of winemaking in the Barossa Valley, north of Adelaide, and the Henschke family have been there right from the start. Johann Henschke emigrated from a village in Silesia (now in south-west Poland) in 1841, planting a small vineyard 20 years later. What began as little more than a few bottles for family and friends grew as more vineyards were acquired. Today, the fifth and sixth generations of Henschkes are in charge of a vaunted portfolio of wines that includes bottlings from the Eden Valley and Adelaide Hills as well as the Barossa.

There is great value (and variety) to be had throughout a range that covers everything from fizz and Riesling to Semillon and stickies. But there’s no question as which wine sits at the top of the pyramid. Henschke’s Hill of Grace is a single-vineyard Shiraz from ancient, ungrafted bush vines in the Eden Valley, and one of Australia’s undoubted A-list fine wines. Rich, complex and multi-layered it attracts praise and awe in more or less equal measure. In fact, wine writer Matthew Jukes – who’s tasted a fair few top wines in his time – described the 2021 as ‘a genuinely humbling wine’ and scored it 20+ points – literally off the scale.