Henschke Mount Edelstone Shiraz 2013 750ml

Grape Variety: 100% 101-year-old single-vineyard shiraz grapes grown in the Eden Valley wine region.

Cellaring Potential: Exceptional vintage, 25+ years (from vintage).

Harvest Date: 20-27 March | Alcohol: 14.5% | pH: 3.48 | Acidity: 6.99g/L

Maturation: Matured in 81% French and 19% American (34% new, 66% seasoned) hogsheads for 18 months prior to blending and bottling.

Background: The Mount Edelstone vineyard, situated in the Eden Valley, was planted in 1912 by Ronald Angas, a descendant of George Fife Angas, who founded South Australia. Unusual for its time, it was planted solely to shiraz. The ancient 500-million-year-old soils on the vineyard are deep red-brown clay-loam to clay, resulting in low yields from over 100-year-old drygrown, ungrafted centenarian vines. First bottled as a single-vineyard wine in 1952, it became recognised as one of the greatest shiraz wines in Australia.

Vintage Description: The lead-up to the 2013 vintage saw an early onset of summer, with occasional thunderstorms and only four heat spikes, into the 40s, over summer. A cooler than average January followed by a warm February, brought the predicted early vintage even further forward. Even after the dry-fecta of winter/spring/summer the word from the winery floor was that it would be another great Eden Valley riesling year, followed up with some great old-vine shiraz. Fortunately, a desperately needed 16mm of rain came, the first for nearly six months, at the beginning of March to help the dry-grown vines struggle through to full maturity. The roller-coaster weather ride continued through March with almost weekly cycles of hot and cold. Cool drizzly weather at the end of March nearly brought the harvest to a halt, but a return to the Indian summer conditions in early April gave us a chance to get the late varieties in Eden Valley over the line for another great vintage of average yields and fabulous rock solid quality.