FLOAT 100 · Wine · No. 41
Henschke Hill of Grace 2016
Ungrafted Shiraz vines planted around 1860 by a Silesian settler, beside a Lutheran church whose German name means Hill of Grace, gave a 2016 that one Decanter judge called the first wine he had ever scored 100.
- Maker
- Henschke
- By price in wine
- 52 of 100
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Create a free account- Producer
- Henschke, Keyneton, Eden Valley, South Australia
- Vineyard
- Hill of Grace, about 8 ha at Parrot Hill, 4 km northwest of the winery, beside the Gnadenberg Lutheran Church
- Oldest vines
- The 'Grandfathers' block, planted around 1860 by Nicolaus Stanitzki, on their own roots
- Grape
- Shiraz, from the six oldest Shiraz blocks in the vineyard
- First vintage of the wine
- 1958, made by Cyril Henschke
- 2016 harvest
- March 9 to 14, 2016
- Aging
- 18 months in hogsheads, 85% French and 15% American oak
- Released
- May 2021, at AUD 890 a bottle; the 59th vintage and 55th release of the wine
- Format
- 750 ml bottle
The vineyard by the church
Hill of Grace is a translation of Gnadenberg, a region in Silesia and the name of the Lutheran church that overlooks the vineyard at Parrot Hill in South Australia's Eden Valley, about 4 kilometers northwest of the Henschke winery at Keyneton. The vineyard was once a 20-acre (8-hectare) part of an 80-acre block that Charles Flaxman bought in 1838 for one pound an acre. In the late 1850s it was leased to Nicolaus Stanitzki, a settler from Silesia, who bought it in 1873. In 1858 a corner of the land was set aside as the site of the church.
Stanitzki planted vines on the property around 1860. Sources describe the date of the first planting slightly differently: the Henschke family says circa the 1860s, one critic says around 1860, and another says sometime before 1860. He planted a range of grape varieties, and the vineyard is still not all Shiraz. The oldest surviving block, known as the Grandfathers, covers 0.56 hectare. The family says the Shiraz cuttings were brought to these lands by early settlers from the Hermitage region of France.
The vines grow on their own roots, never grafted. Phylloxera, the root louse that destroyed much of Europe's vineyards in the late 1800s, has never reached them, which is one reason the vineyard has no signs: nobody wants a visitor to carry the pest in on their boots. The vines are dry-grown and naturally low-yielding. The site sits about 400 meters above sea level with roughly 520 millimeters of annual rain, on thick red clay loams under a layer of fine sandy-to-silty loam, with alluvial silt near Parrot Hill Creek.
Six generations of Henschkes
Johann Christian Henschke was born in 1803 and fled religious persecution in his homeland with his wife and four children in 1841, aboard the Skjold, which reached Port Adelaide on October 27. His wife and their two youngest children died on the voyage. By 1862 he had bought land in what became Keyneton. A mason, he built a small cellar in the side of a hill, and the family's first vintage was 1868.
In 1891 his son Paul Gotthard Henschke bought the Hill of Grace vineyard, and in 1910 he planted another block of Shiraz there. After his death in 1914 the vineyard passed to his son Julius Philip, who had married a granddaughter of Nicolaus Stanitzki, and in 1928 to Julius Philip's widow. Later another Henschke, Louis, bought the property and worked it for nearly 40 years, planting more Shiraz in the early 1950s; sources give his middle name and purchase date differently. He died in 1990.
His brother Cyril Henschke turned the family winery toward table wine at a time when most Australian wine was fortified. He bottled the Mount Edelstone vineyard as a single-vineyard Shiraz from 1952, and in 1958 made the first Hill of Grace from vines then up to 100 years old. Translating the name Gnadenberg into English was later called a marketing masterstroke for a conservative market. After Cyril's death, his son Stephen and Stephen's wife Prue, who had both studied at Geisenheim in Germany, took over the winery in 1979. Stephen makes the wine and Prue runs the vineyards. Their son Johann has worked as a winemaker and viticulturist there since 2013.
Blocks, Easter and a slow succession
Hill of Grace is a single vineyard, but it is far from uniform. The Shiraz is planted in eight separate blocks, and only the six oldest are used for Hill of Grace: the Grandfathers (around 1860), Post Office Block 1 (1910), the House Block (1951), Church Block (1952), the Windmill Block (1956) and Post Office Block 2 (1967). Each is picked and fermented on its own, and the final blend is made just before bottling. The rest of the site grows Riesling, Semillon and Mataro. Sources disagree on how much of the 8 hectares is Shiraz: the family says about half, while one critic put it at about 7 hectares.
The Henschkes have long noticed that the grapes usually reach full ripeness around the full moon after the autumn equinox, which is to say around Easter, even though Easter can move by as much as 35 days from year to year. Stephen Henschke compared the 2016 with 1988, 1994 and 2008, vintages he said were all picked on early Easters and have aged exceptionally.
Because even these vines will not live forever, Prue Henschke began a selection program in 1986, evaluating more than 13,000 Shiraz vines across Mount Edelstone and Hill of Grace. A nursery block planted in 1989 from her selections now makes a separate wine, Hill of Roses, first made in 2001; those vines must earn their way into Hill of Grace on the tasting bench. After 30 years of trials, four vines from Hill of Grace and 17 from Mount Edelstone were chosen and planted in 2017 to supply future replacements.
2016: 'A Congregation of the Ancients'
The 2016 season opened with a warmer than average December, then ran more moderately through January to a harvest from March 9 to 14, slightly earlier than 2015. 'With some stress over summer producing smaller berries,' Stephen Henschke said, 'but the weather from veraison onwards was perfect, giving us concentrated and plush wines.' Yields were average, and he described the vintage's wines as 'concentrated, complex, vibrant and energetic.' The 2016 produced nearly as much Hill of Grace as the 2015 and far more than the small 2013 and 2014 crops.
The wine spent 18 months in hogsheads, 85% French and 15% American oak. The share of new oak is reported differently: one published note gives 29% new, another gives a much higher figure. The family gave the release the title 'A Congregation of the Ancients.' It was the 59th vintage of Hill of Grace but only the 55th release, because no wine was made in 1960, 1974, 2000 and 2011 when drought or rain made a wine of the required quality impossible.
The 2016 was released on May 5, 2021, at AUD 890, alongside the 2016 Hill of Roses and Mount Edelstone, as the family moved to align the vintages of its top Shiraz; in the past Hill of Grace had come out a year or two after the others. Tyson Stelzer of the Halliday Wine Companion scored it 99. In Decanter's Wines of the Year tasting, published in February 2022, it was the Best Red and the highest-scoring wine overall, averaging 99 points across three blind judges; Stefan Neumann MS called it 'perfection in a glass' and said it was the first time he had ever given 100 points. Quill & Pad and The World of Fine Wine both scored it 99, and James Suckling scored it 100, reviewing it under the headline 'Henschke's Back-to-Back Perfection,' following the 2015.
Rarity and price
No source found gives a bottle or case count for the 2016 Hill of Grace. What is known is that the vineyard is small, its oldest block covers just over half a hectare, and only six of its blocks qualify. Henschke as a whole crushes about 700 tonnes a year from some 105 hectares of vineyards, according to one retailer profile.
Hill of Grace has never been entered in Australia's wine show system, and one of the country's leading wine classifications rated it 'Exceptional,' its top tier, in 2005. At release the 2016 cost more than twice as much as Hill of Roses. In October 2026 a US retailer listed single bottles at $899, marked down from $999; that is an asking price, not a sale.
The numbers
- Vineyard
- About 8 ha; Shiraz area reported as about half (family) or about 7 ha (one critic)
- Grandfathers block
- 0.56 ha, planted around 1860
- Elevation
- About 400 m
- 2016 harvest
- March 9-14, 2016
- Bottles produced
- Not published in any source found
- Halliday Wine Companion
- 99 (Tyson Stelzer, 2021)
- Decanter Wines of the Year
- Best Red, 99-point average (February 2022)
- Quill & Pad
- 99 (May 2021)
- The World of Fine Wine
- 99
- James Suckling
- 100 (October 2020)
Timeline
Charles Flaxman buys the 80-acre block at Parrot Hill that includes the future vineyard, at one pound an acre.
Johann Christian Henschke reaches Port Adelaide aboard the Skjold.
A corner of the land is set aside for the Gnadenberg church.
Around this time Nicolaus Stanitzki plants the Grandfathers vines.
Johann Christian Henschke buys land in what becomes Keyneton.
The Henschke family makes its first vintage.
Paul Gotthard Henschke buys the Hill of Grace vineyard.
Paul Gotthard plants Post Office Block 1.
Cyril Henschke makes the first Mount Edelstone single-vineyard Shiraz.
Cyril Henschke makes the first Hill of Grace.
Stephen and Prue Henschke take over the winery after Cyril's death.
Prue Henschke begins a mass selection of the old Shiraz vines.
A nursery block of selected vines is planted at Hill of Grace.
A leading Australian wine classification rates Hill of Grace 'Exceptional', its top tier.
No Hill of Grace is made, one of four missing vintages.
The 2016 harvest begins, running to March 14.
The final selection of four Hill of Grace vines is planted to supply future replacements.
James Suckling publishes his review of the 2016.
The 2016 is released at AUD 890, with a 99-point score from Tyson Stelzer of the Halliday Wine Companion.
Decanter names the 2016 Best Red in its Wines of the Year, averaging 99 points.
The world in 2016
Bushfires in Western Australia destroy most of the town of Yarloop.
Australia's federal electoral reform laws pass after 28 hours of straight Senate debate.
The United Kingdom votes in a referendum to leave the European Union.
Australia holds a double dissolution federal election; Malcolm Turnbull's coalition is returned with a reduced majority.
Australia's census website goes down for the whole night, which the statistics bureau blames on denial-of-service attacks.
A massive storm leaves the entire state of South Australia without electricity.
Donald Trump is elected president of the United States.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | $899 | Asking price, not a saleUS retailer list price per 750 ml bottle, marked down from $999. Not a sale. The release price in May 2021 was AUD 890 (no USD figure stated). |
This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.
By reference price, Henschke Hill of Grace 2016 is number 52 of 100 in the wine entries of the FLOAT 100. 12 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (41 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- The Hill of Grace vineyard has no signs, partly so that visitors do not carry phylloxera onto its ungrafted vines.
- Hill of Grace has never been entered in an Australian wine show.
- The grapes usually ripen around Easter, the full moon after the autumn equinox, even though Easter moves by up to 35 days.
- No Hill of Grace was made in 1960, 1974, 2000 or 2011, and in 2003 there was only one barrel.
- Stefan Neumann MS said the 2016 was the first wine to which he had ever given 100 points.
- Johann Christian Henschke lost his first wife and two of his children on the 1841 voyage to South Australia.
- Prue Henschke screened more than 13,000 vines to find the four Hill of Grace vines chosen to carry the vineyard forward.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 1, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026