Henschke Henry’s Seven 2015
This is easily the tastiest vintage of this Henschke red I’ve tried.
So Henry’s Seven is named after Henry Evans who planted seven acres of vineyard at Keyneton in 1853. Apparently, Evans enjoyed quite a reputation for his wines, but then when he died 15yrs later, his wife uprooted the vines and shuttered the winery. As you do.
Anyway, this is 65% Shiraz, 20% Grenache, 10% Mataro and 5% Viognier. Some vintages have seen the Viognier stick out and the style a bit sweet and simple. But this ’15 is bang on.
Purple fuschia coloured, the joy here is the spicy purple fruit. It’s everywhere and it’s mighty enticing. Juicy. Open. Lively. Underneath it’s polished, juicy, slurpy and purple fruited, yet with more weight and seriousness than some mono-dimensional joven red. There’s volume here, even if the tannins are light and the style is more of a short-to-medium term prospect.
Enjoyable every which way.
Best drinking: 2016-2025. 17.7/20, 92/100. 14.5%, $37. Would I buy it? I’d go a bottle for sure.
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2 Comments
Greetings Andrew, Another year nearly over and another few hundred bottles we all have had. My liver is holding up rather well thankyou very much, and I hope yours is too. Henschke, quite simply wine royalty in Australia. Probably underrated and that’s probably due to the lack of publicity. But their reds are nearly always beautiful.
I was immediately eager when I saw your byline and upon opening had a smile on my face. I will tell you about a funny Henrys Seven 2010 experience in may this year, the night of my daughters 18th birthday. You talk a lot about purple fruit. A lot of west oz stuff that I have liked over the years have had that in it and I think you sent me a link to the hidden viognier component having a great influence on this. I can’t help myself from not singing so, so please let me indulge myself.
I never meant to cause you any sorrow
I never meant to cause you any pain
I only wanted to one time to see you laughing
I only wanted to see you
Drinking all that purple wine.
Attending that night wasmy daughters girfriends dad who happened to give me the only one I had ever seen a few years back, and I said I would find a time. Perfect, however, I always thought it was a white. I think the shape is a bit more fatter Riesling like. So on the day, in it went into the esky with the savvys, the chardys and the beers. Come the late night after the whites went first, I said to my mate, lets have that one you gave me years back. Upon pouring, the bloody think was red ! I kid you not, the worst stuff up in my entire wine drinking life. But you know what, we had a sip, a bloody good laugh, and even after another three hours, the red was till too damn cold.
However, I could taste the quality there even though the taste buds were anasthetized with the cold. It still remains a talking point.
Great work Chris! Excellent!
I’ve always enjoyed the Henschke reds, and Mt Ed will always be a serious favourite.
It’s interesting to see how the Viognier component has been dialled back more in many reds these days. Almost as if makers are ashamed to admit its existence. Personally the v weed annoys me, but when done properly, it can do great things to Shiraz/Syrah.