2021 Henschke Mount Edelstone

99 POINTS

Andrew Caillard MW - The Vintage Journal

Medium deep crimson. Lovely intense raspberry, blackberry pastille, hint mocha aromas with herb garden/ sage notes. Pure and inky textured with superb raspberry pastille, blackberry fruits, persistent fine slinky/ brambly textures and underlying grilled nut, vanilla notes. Al-dente firm at the finish with persistent sweet fruit notes and a kick of aniseed. This a gorgeous reference Eden Valley Shiraz with superb fruit definition, energy and flow. 14.5% alc Drink 2027 – 2040

98 POINTS

Ken Gargett - WinePilot.com

One of Australia’s most famous wines, it too often falls under the shadow of Hill of Grace, notwithstanding that it has been around for even longer. The vineyard was planted in 1912 by Ronald Angas, descended from George Fife Angas, one of the founders of South Australia. This is the 69th release, having been first bottled in 1952 (there was no 2011). The Henschkes see this wine as their “most typical Eden Valley style”. It is the generosity of this wine that makes the most striking impression. Plush, approachable, ripe, just sheer class. There are aromas of aniseed, sage, bay leaves, chocolate, black fruits, soy, cloves and beef stock. The palate sees more strawberry notes emerge. Seamless, with a nice line of fresh acidity and a lingering finish, it is the seductive creamy texture which stands out. This is a wine vibrating with promise, walking the tightrope between finesse and power. Time in the glass saw the perfumes really explode forth. Twenty to thirty years, standing on its head.

98 POINTS

Dave Brookes - Halliday's Wine Companion

I used to live next door to this 109-year-old vineyard for nearly a decade and have seen the hard work and attention to detail that goes into its farming. The 2021 is an absolute stunner from a great vintage and I've no doubt that this will age gracefully for decades. The length of flavour with this release is quite something; the fruit is sleek, plush and on-point pure. Blackberry, Doris plum and black cherry layer with spice and hints of sage, bay leaf, pepper, olive tapenade, anise, violets and stone. Velvety and graceful in its flow on the palate with a fresh mineral cadence and superfine, powdered granitic tannins for support. It'll go down as one of the greats.

97 POINTS

Jeni Port - winepilot.com

Sourced from a 109-year-old single vineyard which brings its own form of Australian old vine class to the glass. It is both immediately friendly while also offering a sense of something deeper and more serious. I love that about Edelstone: whenever you taste it, young or old, it’s a friend. Ripe, sweet black and red fruits light up the scent accompanied by lifted woody spices, a hint of bitter chocolate, sage and earth. Opens up beautifully on the palate, in part, no doubt, to the quality of the vintage and in part to the quality of the fruit. Tannins are laid out fine and evenly integrated with a mix of 20% American and 80% French oak with just a light new oak (9%) component that contributes an extra degree of woody spiciness, especially on the finish. The ’21 holds a little more in reserve than in previous vintages, it’s tighter, no less friendly but boasts significant depth yet to be revealed.

97 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Wine Advocate

The 2021 Mount Edelstone Vineyard Shiraz was planted in 1912 and was 16 hectares from own-rooted, pre-phylloxera James Busby vine stock. The first Mount Edelstone wine was produced in 1952, from 40-year-old vines. The success of the Mount Edelstone was the inspiration for the Hill of Grace single-vineyard wine to be produced from the 1958 vintage. The Mount Edelstone vineyard is planted at 400 meters in elevation and has an easterly aspect trellised to the Scott Henry system, capturing the morning sun and avoiding the hot afternoon sun. The wine is velvety and layered with raw cocoa tannins, black pepper, Sichuan pepper, raspberry and blood plum. This has all the concentration and intensity that we know and love of Mount Edelstone; it speaks clearly to Eden Valley as a place, with notes of sage, bay, crushed rocks and a cool minerality that drives it through the long finish. This is a superb wine. 14.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

97 POINTS

Angus Hughson

The 2021 Shiraz Mount Edelstone is a stunner, offering a tremendous mix of refinement and understated power. It is quite beautiful, although tightly bound right now, delivering a compact core of spice, bay leaf, and violets, while oak adds well-judged support. There is a balletic feel to the palate as ethereal flavors of measured ripeness are backed by firm acidity and tight tannins. This release is marked by delicious energy and overall lightness of touch—an exceptional vintage for this label.

96 POINTS

Natasha Hughes MW - Decanter

The Mount Edelstone vineyard was planted on ancient reddish-brown clay loam soils in 1912, and these centenarian vines always yield a wine of depth and rich complexity. The 2021 is no exception, and its velvety palate is packed with perfumed dark berry fruit, sandalwood, cedar, black pepper and sage, as well as a lick of sweet oak spice. Despite the headiness of the fruit, the wine doesn’t lack freshness, and the plush, deep-pile tannins also help to bring focus to the wine. Although it’s tempting to drink it now, time in bottle will repay patience by allowing the wine to unfurl further over the years. Harvested 31 March-12 April. Matured in 9% new and 91% seasoned hogsheads, of which 80% French and 20% American.

95 POINTS

Campbell Mattinson - The Wine Front

"Mount Edelstone has been crafted by the Henschke family for over 65 years and is arguably the longest consecutively produced, single-vineyard wine in Australia.” It’s grown on vines that were planted in 1912. CM: This is a bold expression of Mount Edelstone shiraz with rich plum, graphite, woodsmoke and black licorice characters bursting through the palate. Woodsy spice and mint notes hurry thereafter to catch up. There’s force to the fruit and there’s force to the tannin too, the latter of which feels grunty and serious, if not yet fully resolved. This is a lifted wine, smoky, meaty and dark on the one hand, but while the nose is generous and open the palate itself has a brood to it, and a creaminess. All indications are that this is a wine with a long future ahead of it. 95 points MB: Mount Edelstone in 2020 was devastating for the Henschke family, the whole vintage went into the museum and wasn’t released, though the volume likely could be drunk by the family alone, as a plus. The 2021 returns with abundance and balance, a stellar vintage for the site. Dark, brooding red of concentration but levity. A freshness and elevated spice amongst dark chocolate-berry/cherry, mocha touches, liquorice, sweet, turned earth and mahogany/cedary woody elements. Tannins are light then build into chewiness, the dust settling into swishes and pools at the conclusion. It feels like it needs time to flesh out, though it is balanced at present. Moody, meaty red of old school, good school feel. 95+ points