HENSCHKE Mount Edelstone Shiraz 2022

Robert Parker Score: 98 points

Reviewer: Erin Larkin — March 2026 Week 426 Mar 2026

Drink 2026–2062

The 2022 Mount Edelstone Vineyard Shiraz is bright, supple, spicy, savory and sweet. It is complex and shapely, persistent and delicate, with notes of bay leaf, raspberry seed, tapenade, wet moss and brine. This is a beautiful wine, and one of the most lovely Mount Edelstone Vineyard Shirazes I have tasted on release. I love the wines from the 2022 vintage; it may forever live in the shadow of the great 2021 vintage that came before it, but not in my heart. It has a pH of 3.43, 5.8 grams per liter of total acidity and 14.5% alcohol.

According to Henschke: "The winter of 2021 brought good rainfall, refilling soil profiles, and the cool, slow start to the growing season resulted in budburst occurring two weeks later than average. An extreme hail event on October 28 decimated the young-shoot growth across our vineyards in Keyneton, significantly reducing crop potential. Late flowering (late November to early December) avoided the cold and windy conditions, resulting in good fruit set, albeit with smaller yields. A burst of summer heat, without extremes, supported berry development and balanced canopy growth. Welcome rain in late January occurred just before veraison and ripening, leading into a mild and dry finish to summer. The 2022 vintage was late, with harvest dates one to two weeks later than the historical average. The resulting wines have great elegance with excellent aromatic and flavor intensity, bright acidity and wonderful aging potential.

Mount Edelstone has been crafted by the Henschke family for over 70 years and is one of the longest consecutively produced single-vineyard wines in Australia. Planted in 1912 by Ronald Angas, a descendant of George Fife Angas who played a significant role in the foundation of South Australia, the Mount Edelstone Vineyard comprises solely of Shiraz, which was unusual for its time. The unique geological make up of deep red-brown clay-loam to clay results in low yields from the ungrafted centenarian vines. First bottled as a single-vineyard wine in 1952 by fourth-generation winemaker Cyril Henschke."