Hill of Grace: spirit blessed by family

The release of each new vintage of Hill of Grace is one of the most eagerly anticipated in Australian wine.

I’ve heard a lot of winemakers profess love for their vineyards, but Stephen Henschke is the only one I’ve seen brought to tears.

But then Hill of Grace is no ordinary vineyard.

“I heard an interview with an indigenous woman who was talking about how her people thought of the afterlife. Rather than the spirits heading off to somewhere mysterious in the sky, they remain here as part of the landscape, in the trees, on the wind,” Henschke explained while launching the 2012 incarnation of the famous wine he makes at the Hill of Grace vineyard.

“Sometimes I stand out in the vineyard and close my eyes and I can feel the spirits of the generations that came before me. It’s a very special place.”

And then the tears come.

The release of each new vintage of Hill of Grace, five years of gentle maturation in wood and glass after the season that spawned it, is one of the most eagerly anticipated in Australian wine.

It is the one wine that competes with Grange for prestige and price.

It comes from a small patch of the vineyard that shares its name, primarily from several rows of gnarled and twisted vines planted in the 1860s known now as The Grandfathers.

About the same time Johann Christian Henschke bought land about 4km away and established the stone winery and cellar that is still operated by the fifth and sixth generations today.

The vineyard came into the Henschke family through fortuitous marriage when third-generation Paul Alfred Henschke married Johanne Ida Selma Stanitzki, granddaughter of Nicolas Stanitzki, the viticulturalist who planted it.

By then the vineyard was already 50 years old.

Stephen Henschke is well aware of the precious gift he and his family are preserving for those who will follow them.

Not only because it produces a wine that puts their name into any conversation about the world’s most significant single vineyard wines, but also because the spirits of those who brought the Henschke family to this point still make noise in this place.

It can be heard in the old Gnadenberg church, with its pews polished by six generations of Henschke behinds.

It can be heard in the cemetery alongside it, where so many of the headstones read Henschke you’d half expect the local memorial mason would’ve made use of his quiet time by pre-chiselling a few extra, knowing they’d eventually get used one day.

And sometimes, when the imagination is primed and the wind blows just right, you can hear the songs and dancing of a family that always loved music.

Hill of Grace is a wine with a strong sense of place, created not just by the soil and climate of its geographical location but by the labours and joys, the heartbreaks and triumphs of the family whose blood, sweat and tears are mixed in with it.

Henschke Hill of Grace 2012, $825

This highly anticipated release — there was no wine from the terribly difficult 2011 to follow on from a stellar 2010 bottling — proves the wait has been worthwhile.

The wine achieves tremendous concentration without bulking up. It’s focused and poised, revealing itself in ever-deepening layers.

There are bright and lively blue and black berry aromas and flavours, some ecclesiastical smoke, Dutch licorice and a savoury edge that suggests black olives and dry bay leaves.

It’s the composure of the wine that is really impressive, and the ease and — dare I say it — grace with which it moves through the mouth and lingers in the memory.

Yes, it’s very expensive, but it’s also very, very good.

Footnote: If $825 is a little rich for your blood, keep an eye out for a new wine Henschke has just released, The Bootmaker Mataro 2015 ($75). A decadently expressive take on a variety that can be a little broody, it’s seductive, thrillingly fragrant and utterly delicious. If forced to choose between one bottle of Hill of Grace or 11 bottles of this, I might just err on the side of quantity.