Hill Of Grace (again!)

 For a special occasion, I pulled my second last bottle of Hill of Grace from the cellar (I do not buy this wine at the current price point any more). It is a 2010 Henschke Hill of Grace.

I reviewed this wine five years ago and not much has changed. Interestingly, the Henschkes attribute this good vintage to the amount of light during the growing season. This is only rarely talked about, but can deliver flavour and colour, in particular.

In any case, this wine is very aromatic and vibrant. The palate is complex, with mulberry, blackberry, eucalypt, white pepper, and tender meat flavours. It is a very elegant and velvety wine. The oak is noticeable, but in contrast to the 90s wines previously tasted, this now has 40% French oak, which improves the balance and integration, in my view.

This is a full-bodied Shiraz, but more on the medium side. The fruit weight carries the 14.5% alcohol well. This wine hits some high notes and finishes long, but I did not find it totally remarkable.

Score: 96/+++ 

1990: Grange, Hill of Grace, Wendouree

Today, I am starting a process I have been looking forward to for many, many years: I opened three bottles of the best Shirazes at their 20th anniversary. I will drink and compare these over three nights: a glass each on each night.

They are looking good, the levels are high in all wines.

But then the first major obstacle. Only the Grange cork, which I pull

ed first, comes out cleanly. The others break. It is not a disaster, as I will capture the cork which fell in (it was not much) in the decanting process. But is my cellar too dry?

Results will follow after the three day event.

1990 Henschke Hill of Grace

Last night my wife and I had reason for a very special celebration. So we thought we pull out a big one. Look at the gunk in this bottle. This is a $500 bottle now, so it is satisfying to read in my database that I bought this wine in 1993 for $43 only. Not a bad return, but no way I would return this wine.

This surely must be one of the greatest wines produced in Australia in the last 20 years. I talked in my first post about the french way of describing a wine. Well this is a 'female' wine in their vocabulary.

I decided to air and decant the wine, but not for too long, as I was concerned that too much air might affect the flavour. Boy, was I wrong. As we started to drink the wine, it was still quite closed, but after 10 minutes, beautiful aromas started to open up. The fruit flavours were still strong, quite complex. My wife and I had quite different views of what they were. But the overwhelming impression was elegance and silkiness to a degree hardly ever seen in Australian wine. The wine displayed great length and super soft tannins. What a treat.

So is Hill of Grace a Grange challenger? Well, it is a completely different wine. To pick up the french theme again: if the Grange is a masculine wine, the Hill of Grace is a feminine wine. What Grange achieves in fruit concentration and depth, Hill of Grace achieves in elegance and silkiness. Both unrivalled in Australia on these dimensions.