18 points
Matthew Jukes, March 2024, MatthewJukes.com
The first vintage of The Wheelwright was the 2015, which was released in 2018, so this is a relative newcomer to the range. Having said this, the vines are certainly not newcomers because they were planted in 1958. The Wheelwright vineyard is contoured and in 2019, it was a very small harvest indeed. It is less pronounced than previous vintages and slightly disjointed at this early stage of its life. It leans towards Cyril with red, not black tones, and needs a couple of years to assimilate its flavours. There is a degree of lusciousness here, and while it sits somewhere in a flavour spectrum between Barossa Valley proper and Adelaide Hills wines, it seems a little lacking in harmony right now. Give it time.
94 points Sarah Ahmed, March 2024, Decanter.com
Red-fruited, with a willowy frame. In short, all the tell-tale signs of The Wheelwright Vineyard, which is Henschke’s most elevated Shiraz site at 470m. A touch of blue fruit and blood plum augments the red berry fruit in the mouth, together with subtle notes of charcuterie, pork and herb sausage, mocha, cassia bark, liquorice, clove, fern and sundried tomato. Cool, graphite tannins fan out on the finish, lending a touch of grip.
18 points
Jancis Robinson MW, March 2024, JancisRobinson.com
Dark but transparent garnet. Warm, black-fruit compote on the nose. Top note of tamarind. Salty-sweet. Still quite youthful with a strong liquorice note on the palate. Tightens to a bone-dry finish after a glorious cocktail of fruit and a suggestion of cinders on the mid palate. Long and I found myself once again wanting to use the word 'glorious'.
