Henschke Mount Edelstone Vineyard Shiraz 2021

Sourced from a 109-year-old single vineyard which brings its own form of Australian old vine class to the glass. It is both immediately friendly while also offering a sense of something deeper and more serious. I love that about Edelstone: whenever you taste it, young or old, it’s a friend. Ripe, sweet black and red fruits light up the scent accompanied by lifted woody spices, a hint of bitter chocolate, sage and earth. Opens up beautifully on the palate, in part, no doubt, to the quality of the vintage and in part to the quality of the fruit. Tannins are laid out fine and evenly integrated with a mix of 20% American and 80% French oak with just a light new oak (9%) component that contributes an extra degree of woody spiciness, especially on the finish. The ’21 holds a little more in reserve than in previous vintages, it’s tighter, no less friendly but boasts significant depth yet to be revealed.

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.

Wine writer and critic