Henschke Hill of Grace Vintage Report

Henschke Hill of Grace Vintage Report 

Last week we picked the Hill of Grace vineyard which also coincided with the release of our 2007 Hill of Grace – this release marks the 50^th vintage since the first release of this iconic wine in 1958. This historic vineyard is named after the Gnadenberg church  (translates to Hill of Grace) which oversees this beautiful site. The first section of this vineyard, which we call the Grandfather block, was planted in 1860 by pioneer ancestor, Nicolaus Stanitzki. When the Henschke family donated the land for the Gnadenberg Church, Nicolaus planted the vineyard and the local villagers help build the church. For nearly a 100 years, from 1860 to the 1950s the fruit went into claret, burgundy and port which was the ‘everyday’ wine of the villagers. Wines were bottled from the vineyard before 1958 but were never labelled or released and it wasn’t until Cyril Henschke saw the merit in producing single vineyard wines with his success of the Mount Edelstone shiraz, that the first bottle of Hill of Grace was released in 1958. 

The Hill of Grace vineyard is an intricate carpet of plots which consists of the House block shiraz planted in 1951, the Church block planted in 1952, the Windmill block planted in 1956 and Post Office block 1,2 & 3 which were planted respectively in 1910, 1965 and 1989. Each plot contributes to the unique character of the Hill of Grace wine.

The Hill of Grace vineyard is always picked close to the full moon of Easter and this year was no exception.  The fruit quality was excellent with lots of the trademark spice flavours, acidity and ripe tannins and we had cool mild weather leading up to perfect picking conditions.  The 2012 Hill of Grace is certainly one to look out for when it is released in the years to come!

2012 harvest of the Hill of Grace vineyard – photograph Dragan Radocaj

Picking the post office block – 2012

photograph Dragan Radocaj