2013 A VINTAGE GRACED BY FAITH

“Rich and beguiling aromas of blackberry, blueberry and dark plum, followed by signature exotic five spice, star anise, and sage, with underlying nuances of beef stock and dark cedar. Intense and layered, the complex palate bursts with a dense, pure core of sweet spiced plum and blackberry, coated by firm yet integrated, fine velvety tannins which draw away to an extraordinarily long finish and lingering flavours of dried, sweet spices.” – STEPHEN HENSCHKE


Faith led Johann Christian Henschke, my paternal great-great grandfather, across the world in 1841 to settle in the ranges east of Barossa. Faith guided the hands of Nicolaus Stanitzki, my maternal great-great grandfather, as he nestled the first shiraz vines into the earth of his Eden Valley vineyard. It strengthened the shoulders of the early settlers of Parrot Hill as they raised the walls of a humble Lutheran church called Gnadenberg. Translation: Hill of Grace, church and vineyard would share this name.

Faith has been the compass for custodians of Hill of Grace for over one hundred and fifty-five years. As each new season sweeps across the ranges, transforming bare vines with brushes made of rain and sunlight into canopies coloured with grapes, we nurturers anxiously work and watch and wait for ripening. Nothing is certain until berries shimmer in open-top fermenters.

In 2013, as Prue prepared the Hill of Grace winter vineyard for its annual dance, we faced the prospect of a dry winter, a dry spring and a dry summer. The occasional thunderstorm taunted with heavy skies but didn’t deliver until late in February when desperately needed rains carried the precious yield of our dry-grown vines through to harvest.

The very small and exquisitely beautiful crop of 2013 was hand-picked in the cool mornings of autumn. The wine spent five years in our cellars before release in 2018, a year celebrating 150 years of Henschke family winemaking. Hill of Grace 2013 is a vintage graced by our faith and that of the generations who came before us in the gardens of Eden.

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