Vintage Description
The 1990 vintage was an exceptional picture-book season with good winter rains, a perfect spring and mild summer providing excellent ripening conditions. It saw the largest yields on record with possibly the best quality fruit across all varieties for two to three decades.
Producer tasting notes: "Dark crimson with brick red hues. Sweet, concentrated dark plum fruits with underlying hints of blackberry, leather, five spice and oak nuances. Plush, ripe plum and blackcurrant fruits combine with layers of fine velvety tannins for perfect balance and a complex yet elegant finish." - Henschke
Drinking Window: 1995-2040
TOP VINTAGES: 2013, 2012, 2010, 2009, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2002, 1999, 1998, 1996, 1994, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1986, 1978, 1972, 1962, 1959, 1958.
Background
Over 165 years ago Johann Christian Henschke came from Silesia to settle and farm in the Eden Valley region. By the time third-generation Paul Alfred Henschke took over the reins in 1914, the famous Hill of Grace vines were more than 50 years old. They were planted around the 1860s by an ancestor, Nicolaus Stanitzki, in rich alluvial soil in a shallow fertile valley just north-west of the winery. The red-brown earth grading to deep silty loam has excellent moisture-holding capacity for these dry-grown vines, which sit at an altitude of 400m, with an average rainfall of 520mm. Hill of Grace is a unique, delineated, historic single vineyard that lies opposite a beautiful old Lutheran church which is named after a picturesque region in Silesia called Gnadenberg, meaning Hill of Grace. Cyril Henschke made the first single-vineyard shiraz wine from this vineyard in 1958 from handpicked grapes vinified in traditional open-top fermenters.
