Henschke Louis Semillon 2023
£20.45
The wine
Pale lemon with golden hues, opening on lifted grapefruit, white peach and orange layered with almond, clover blossom and hints of lychee, custard apple and creamed honey. Bright on the palate.
Semillon is the great underrated white of Australia, capable of extraordinary age, and Louis comes from Eden Valley fruit. Fermented in tank and then given four months on yeast lees, which builds texture and preserves aromatic purity without the oak that would flatten the variety natural lemon and lanolin character.
The producer
Henschke
View all Henschke winesFew names in the wine world carry the weight of Henschke. Six generations of one family have tended these Eden Valley slopes since 1868, when Johann Christian Henschke planted his first vines. What began as a settler's small holding is now among the most revered estates in the southern hemisphere.
At its heart stands Hill of Grace. Its ancient, ungrafted Shiraz vines, some rooted here since the 1860s, yield a wine spoken of in the same breath as the world's greatest. Around it lie Mount Edelstone and the home vineyards, each a distinct expression of this cool, high country.
Stephen and Prue Henschke steward the estate today. His hand in the cellar and her pioneering work in the vineyard have carried Henschke to the very summit of Australian wine. Every bottle reflects patience, precision and a deep respect for the land.
To pour a Henschke is to taste continuity. These are wines built for the long cellar and the considered occasion. They reward those who wait, and they belong among the finest a collection can hold.
