James Halliday reflects on the history of Henschke

As the Henschke family celebrates its 150th anniversary in winemaking this year, James Halliday looks back at the six generations that have built the business.

THE STOIC LUTHERAN faith is embedded into the very rocks of the Barossa and Eden Valleys, the rocks used to build churches, schools and houses

(in that order of importance). Time and change moved slowly and inexorably, six days each week given to work from dawn to dusk. The family names of the first arrivals continue unchanged to this day, disentangling the branches of the family trees as complicated for outsiders as it is in Burgundy. Fiona MacDonald, in her immaculately researched book Hill of Grace: 150 Years of Henschke Under Southern Skies, decided to simplify the names of the Henschke descendants by using the second Christian name (plus year of birth and death) to avoid the repetitive use of first Christian names, and I follow her solution.

It’s with this background that Henschke celebrated its 150th anniversary earlier this year. Christian Henschke (1803-1873) arrived in South Australia from Silesia in 1841, having lost his wife and two of his children at sea. He settled briefly in the Adelaide Hills where, in 1843, he met and married Dorothea Elisabeth Schmidt, with whom he had eight more children. In 1847, after he became naturalised and able to buy land, the family moved to Krondorf, purchasing 70 acres and building the house that still stands today.

In 1862, he purchased land in Keyneton (then called the North Rhine district), walking back and forth for each day’s labour, planting a small vineyard, and with the help of son Gotthard (1847-1914), a cellar. The first wines were shiraz and riesling, the first sales following in 1868. In the meantime, Nicolaus Stanitzki had planted 0.56ha of shiraz on Parrot Hill (to become the heart of the Hill of Grace).

The 1850s and 1860s saw the key decisions of Christian to effectively tie the family fortunes to the Eden Valley, supported by sons August and Gotthard in separate ventures. Gotthard became the second-generation standard bearer during the 1870s, ’80s and ’90s, the key event being Gotthard’s purchase of the Hill of Grace Vineyard. In 1907, son Alfred (1878-1964) married Johanne Ida Selma Stanitzki, granddaughter of Nicolaus Stanitzki, and by 1914, he was the third-generation Henschke winemaker. It was a difficult time, with WWI and the terrible casualties the Australians suffered followed by the Great Depression (1929-1939).

The year 1949 marked the start of a period of major changes and growth as the Henschke of today started to take shape. Alfred, with sons Cyril (1924-1979) and Louis (1919-1990), built a new fermentation cellar with open concrete fermenters still in use today. In 1950, Alfred handed over the business to Cyril, the youngest son of his 11 children, and in 1951, Louis purchased Hill of Grace from his father. This unleashed a program of expansion on Hill of Grace, with three blocks of shiraz planted between 1951 and 1956, and a fourth in 1965. For good measure, he planted three blocks of riesling between 1954 and 1961, and a bush vine block of mataro in 1956, surely unhappy at the lack of global warming.

The 1950s marked the most important decade in the development of Henschke, starting in 1951 with the acquisition of Hill of Grace, its rapid expansion, and the culmination in 1952 of an agreement with Colin Angas to share-farm the 40-acre Mount Edelstone vineyard planted to shiraz by Colin’s father in 1912.

Which is the chicken, which is the egg is inconsequential, but much of the Mount Edelstone crop was sold (as bulk wine) in transport barrels to key merchants in Melbourne and Sydney, and to companies such as Lindeman’s. But in 1952, part of the wine was bottled by Cyril Henschke and given a label that simply read Mount Edelstone (in large print) Claret (in much smaller print), and (way in advance of its time) had a back label that read: This wine is made from shiraz grapes grown at Mount Edelstone Vineyard, Keyneton.

In 1956, a hand corker and hand filter were installed at the cellar. By dint of borrowing money from his father-in-law, Cyril was able to purchase more bottles and thus increase bottled wine production. He entered wine shows for the first time, and the 1956 Mount Edelstone won first prize at the 1957 Royal Sydney, Royal Melbourne and Royal Adelaide Wine Shows, a truly remarkable feat. Every vintage since that time has had show success, although not always at the same stratospheric level. The corollary was phasing out the production of fortified wines and the bottling of the first vintage of Hill of Grace in 1958.

Cyril became the first Australian winemaker to be awarded a

Churchill Fellowship, and undertook his study through Germany, California and South Africa, bringing home a mind fizzing with ideas formed during that trip. He was one of the pioneers of making wines labelled by variety and was a founding member of the Barons of Barossa.

The momentum continued with Cyril’s 1966 purchase of a

26ha property on the western ridge of the Eden Valley, planting riesling and shiraz. Yet more changes in the dynamics followed in the 1970s with fifth-generation Stephen (born 1950) embarking on a science degree at Adelaide University, the first member of the family to do so. He graduated in 1973, and married Prue Weir. In 1975, they set off for two years of post-graduate study at Geisenheim Institute of Viticulture and Wine under the direction of the renowned Professor Helmut Becker, pivotal years for both.

In 1978, Stephen became assistant winemaker and made the first vintage of Cyril Henschke Cabernet Sauvignon, which went on to win the trophy for Best Burgundy (a curious title normally associated with shiraz) setting a path for trophies awarded to the ’85 and ’86 vintages. The sudden death of Cyril in 1979 saw 29-year-old Stephen take total responsibility for the operation of the business until Prue became Henschke’s viticulturist in 1987. In this role she embarked on a three-year program to identify the best genetic material from the Mount Edelstone and Hill of Grace vineyards. In parallel with this, in 1981 she and Stephen purchased a 13ha apple orchard at Lenswood in the cooler part of the Adelaide Hills, planting chardonnay and pinot noir in lead roles. In 2005, Prue began the adoption of biodynamic management of the vineyards, triggering an ongoing stream of awards for the successes of the program and the business as a whole.

The sixth generation also progressively arrived: Johann in 1983, Justine in 1985 and Andreas in 1990, the seventh generation Matilda Luz born last year following the marriage of Johann to Angela Penalba de las Heras, the daughter of a family with a long history of winemaking in Ribera del Duero in Spain.

Johann completed his Masters degree in viticulture and oenology at Montpelier in 2012, and joined the winemaking team in 2014, the same year as Justine, who – with a marketing degree – had worked in London, New York and Sydney.

And the wines? Well, at last count there were 32 sitting under the Henschke umbrella, made from the Eden and Barossa Valleys, and the Adelaide Hills regions, hitting every price point between $20 and $825.

Finally, the family. The ever-present twinkle in the eye and dry sense of humour of Stephen is the cornerstone of the business, working with Prue on every major decision, while she has received all manner of awards for achievements in the broader wine industry and that of Henschke. So far as I can see, the children are chips off the old block, and the star of Henschke is certain to shine brightly in decades and generations to come.

The year 1949 marked the start of a period of major changes and growth as the Henschke of today started to take shape. Alfred, with sons Cyril and Louis, built a new fermentation cellar with open concrete fermenters still in use today.