Just before I first sat down to write this I realized I had never seen a bottle of Henschke on this sub before and I'm thinking we need to do something about that unless they're actually terrible people or something, in which case I apologize for the amount of glazing that's about to happen here.
The first few times I came across the name Henschke were undoubtedly in intro books like The Wine Bible, but I never really paid that much attention until I started working in the wine industry and had access to the distributor catalogs. As a rookie, I really just had the wines I knew from books and random internet searches as my scope, so having a giant list of wines I could Google was fantastic for learning and working at the same time. In fact, it still is.
It was in a distributor catalog that I came across the name next which looked a little bit confusing to me because most of the prices weren't even close to the top Bordeaux. A lot of them even struggled to compete with moderate tier Bordeaux. And because age and wisdom are practical jokers, my brain decided the reason I was seeing a disconnect between my understanding of the reputation and the prices on the page in front of me was because the wines probably weren't as good and therefore just couldn't compete so I didn't really need to bother looking into it, thus perpetuating the whole cycle.
Eventually they disappeared from my catalogs for a good 6-8 years, during which I did a really deep dive on Australia and discovered I let the ability to get all this stuff for myself at ridiculous prices fall through my fingers and that I should've pounced on most of those wines when I had the chance.
Well, today they're back and I finally have the chance.
2021 Henschke Keyneton Euphonium Red Blend, Barossa/Eden Valley, South Australia– A wine that has technically been around since 1958, it has changed in name and blend over the years, but the idea has always been to make a more approachable Shiraz. In the past, this meant blending different vineyards of Shiraz to combat the power of the single-vineyard ones. It has since evolved into a gorgeous blend of Shiraz, Cab Sauv, Merlot, and Cab Franc from Henschke's Eden Valley Vineyard as well as sourced fruit from growers they work closely with in Barossa Valley. The blend changes from year to year with two thirds of it, give or take, always being made up of Shiraz. The 2021 vintage was 63% Shiraz, 29% Cab Sauv, 5% Cab Franc, and 3% Merlot. Aged for 18 months in a majority of used American oak hogsheads, so this is definitely no oak bomb.
First, if you're reading this and plan on playing along at home at any point in (a minimum of) the next 10 years, I implore you to decant this wine. It's young, it's big, it's full, and it's been stuck in a bottle like a genie the last few years with no oxygen (and also it says to decant it on the bottle). I can attest firsthand that this will remained pretty closed-off and muted for a while unless you give it some time to activate.
On the nose, after a couple hours of catching its breath, this bottle is just amazing. Perfect, juicy blackberries kick things off, followed by beautiful notes of plums, plum skins, blueberries, blueberry skins, and even a little hint of vanilla. The black and blue fruits are here my friends, and their flavors are on a spectrum between perfectly ripe on the one end, and hard candy on the other. The plums are probably the most amazing though because, over time, they slowly start turning into the purple livesavers.
While taking some time to process, you may absent-mindedly put your nose back in the glass and discover it feels colder, only to realize what's going on and welcome eucalyptus to the party. Other secondary and tertiary notes start popping up at this point as well like licorice, a tiny hint of clove, allspice, and the tiniest hint of absolutely pulverized black pepper along with what I can really only describe as expensive thin leather like you might find on a designer bag or couch or something.
But it feels like there should be some red fruits in here…
On the palate, you don't have to wait long, as those red fruits show up in force from the moment they hit your tongue. My notes literally just say "tannins and raspberries wtf" at this stage. Giving it a second, you start to get a green and/or herbal tea and raspberry combination I've come to describe as Celestial Seasonings Raspberry Zinger tea. Shortly after that first punch you start getting this weird cranberry/blackberry juice combo and some tart tart cherries. The real winner among the fruits on the palate though has to be the blueberries. Imagine eating a handful of perfectly ripe blueberries with 1 or 2 slightly underripe ones and a cherry tomato in there. Loads of beautiful fully ripe blueberry flavor with a slightly grassy little kick of acidity and tart blueberry skin.
That acidity itself is fantastic, and there's no overwhelming sense that you're being hit with a piece of lumber or had all the moisture in your cheeks blow-dried out from the tannins and all at a surprisingly pleasant ABV of 14.5%.
It doesn't have the longest finish of any wine I've had, and that's understandable, but in a way that kind of doesn't matter as, so long as you have a glass in the room, you're still going to be able to smell it from every corner, nook, and cranny anyway.
A fantastic bottle of wine, and all while wholesaling for less than wines like Faust or Duckhorn Cabernet.
I can't wait to try a few more of their other bottles in here, especially as a Riesling addict.
by WineNerdAndProud
1 Comment
These are the kind of wine notes that make you say “now these are some fuckin wine notes”