Henschke Winery

There are few more revered names in the Australian wine trade than Henschke. Located in the Eden Valley, Henschke has a long history of crafting wines in South Australia, with Stephen’s direct descendant, Johann Christian Henschke planting vines in the early 1860’s.

Perhaps the most important part of the Henschke story came when Stephen’s ancestor, Nicolaus Stanitzki, planted an 8 hectare block in rich alluvial soil located in a fertile valley, which now sits across the road from an old Lutheran church. The church was named Gnadenberg, meaning Hill of Grace, from where this iconic vineyard took its name. Today almost 150 years later, that same vineyard creates one of Australia’s most sought after wines.

In that time five successive generations have bought the Henschke name to where it is today. Firstly Johann Henschke, then Paul Gottard and Paul Alfred slowly increased production and land holdings. However it was with Stephen’s father, Cyril Henschke, that wine quality took on great focus. During this time Hill of Grace was bottled for the first time as a single bottling in 1958. Today Stephen Henschke, ably assisted by his talented viticulturist wine Prue, continue the family tradition and have further expanded production through the addition of new vineyards and labels to the family stable.

Henschke Philosophy and Winemaking

Cyril Henschke began the focus on single vineyard wines and this is a strategy that continues to this day. This includes many of the Henschke wines such as the famed Eden Valley reds but also other wines such as Julius Riesling, Joseph Pinot Gris and Coralinga Sauvignon Blanc.

Winemaking at Henschke involves a combination of age-old techniques with thoughtful addition of those more modern advances that can add to the final wines. So sulfur and fining is kept to a minimum, as it always has been, with careful use of modern filtration. Some use of refrigeration and inert gas has been introduced only to retain powerful varietal characters, particularly for white wines.