The Producer

Henschke Eden Valley

The fourth placing resulted in Henschke taking the regional award for the ‘Most Admired Wine Brand in Australasia’.

Drinks International editor Martin Green said: “The Most Admired Wine Brands 2021 highlights the most iconic, exciting and innovative producers in the world.

“To win a place on this prestigious list is a tremendous achievement. There are thousands of wine brands vying for attention around the world, but just 50 elite icons have made the cut.

“Congratulations to all of the brands featured this year. They have earned the respect of hundreds of wine professionals and experts spread across the globe, and they have now gained the ultimate stamp of quality.”

This is the 11th year in which Drinks International has compiled its definitive guide to the World’s Most Admired Wine Brands.

Stephen Henschke, owner and chief winemaker said: “We are thrilled that our 150-year-old, sixth-generation family-owned winery has been voted in at No. 4 of the Top 50 World’s Most Admired Wine Brands for 2021, up fourteen places from last year, and our second inclusion in this prestigious list.

“We are grateful to receive this accolade from the Drinks International voting academy. This is an achievement that can be shared by our hard-working team and representatives across the world.

“Our philosophy has always been to be ‘better’ rather than ‘bigger’. My father Cyril, fourth-generation Henschke winemaker was a pioneer of single-varietal and single-vineyard table wines in Australia, with his greatest legacy being the creation of Mount Edelstone and Hill of Grace in the 1950s; shiraz wines from the Eden Valley that have become an integral part of our country’s fine story.

The Region

Eden Valley

The Eden Valley Wine region shares a boundary with its more famous neighbour the Barossa Valley, and there is considerable overlap in the operations of the two regions. Many wineries in each of these regions have vineyards, or source grapes from, the other. But these regions themselves are quite distinct in topography, altitude, temperature and therefore viticultural potential.

The official GI classification for these two regions is that the Barossa Zone includes the Barossa Valley and the Barossa Valley regions. The GI System has some logic but it is often a little difficult to see it.

As a very rough generalisation the Barossa is more suited to red wines, the Eden Valley for whites, but there are a couple of glaring exceptions as we shall see below.

The word "valley" in the name is quite a misnomer when applied to the Eden Valley. It is more a series of jumbled, windswept hills and steep slopes of varied aspects giving each site a different microclimate. Vineyards are scattered throughout the region to make the most of what nature has to offer. By contrast, the Barossa Valley is flatter allowing the landscape of rolling hills to be dominated by neat rows of vines.

In some ways the Eden Valley region has more in common with the Adelaide Hills wine region immediately to the south, than to the Barossa.

Riesling is the variety of choice in this region; it rivals its more famous neighbour the Clare Valley in the production of high quality white wines from this variety. As usual the red wine variety profile is dominated by Shiraz and Cabernet

Henschke have achieved world wide fame for their red wines headed by their iconic red wine Hill of Grace. If you have less than $500 to spend on a bottle of wine Henschke also have a range of other wines including some superb reds, Rieslings and the more recent addition of several other alternative varieties.

Yalumba's winery lies just within the the boundaries of Eden Valley although they are more closely associated with the Barossa.  They have an impressive history of Introducing new varieties, most notable Viognier in the nineties and noughties, but the lis below shows that they are doing much more.

Another notable product of the region is Irvine's Grand Merlot, which is the flagship wine for that variety in Australia.