Henry's Drive,
the story
During the nineteenth century
establishment of the farming and wine industries of southeastern
South Australia, horse-drawn coaches provided the only
transportation of mail and passengers. The coach drivers reigned
supreme on top of their coaches, and won the respect and
admiration of their passengers. The coach service proprietor in
this part of the state was a certain Mr. Henry John Hill. His
operation drove directly through a property owned more recently by
three generations of the Longbottom family of Padthaway. Routes
were known as Drives, thus the family’s wine business is today
known as Henry’s Drive.
Henry's Drive
is situated in the Padthaway district of South Australia, around
180 miles south east of Adelaide. It is naturally cooler than the
more northerly Barossa Valley or McLaren Vale but warmer and more
consistent than Coonawarra, some 50 miles south, with which it
shares a similar, former sea-bed, geology. The property is owned
by the Longbottom family, who have been farmers in Padthaway since
the 1940s. Their first vintage was in 1998.
The vintages
2003
The Australian wine industry
experienced Reduced crop levels across almost all varieties.
Overall, the dry season conditions have helped to deliver a sound
and generally disease-free vintage, with lower yields resulting in
grapes of above average to excellent quality. The decline in the
2003 vintage is largely attributable to widespread lower
drought-affected yields in both cool and warm climate regions, and
cool weather during initial bud formation prior to the 2002
harvest.
Henry's Drive,
the wines
Shiraz
Fermentation
is in temperature controlled stainless steel, with regular
pumping-over, then the wines are run-off warm to barrel to finish
fermentation and malolactic. The Shiraz is aged for 14 months in
American oak (50% new).
Reviews:
"Lush
and voluptuous...concentrated, heady, full-bodied personality with
tremendously pure blackberry and cassis fruit intertwined with
smoky oak and charcoal notes. This impressive, glycerin-filled,
New World, full-throttle/pedal to the metal Shiraz may be over the
top for some tasters, but it is stunning stuff made in a modern,
fruit-driven, extravagantly rich style. Drink it over the next
10-12 years." The Wine Advocate.
Reserve Shiraz
The Shiraz
Reserve is a selection of the finest barrels that has been aged in
100% new American oak for 13 months.
Reviews:
"...displays
the extraordinary fruit quality achieved by South Australia's top
vineyards. The color is opaque blue/purple. The aromatics reveal
gorgeous scents of blackberries, blueberries, cassis, pepper,
licorice, and new oak. Formidably concentrated, extremely
full-bodied and opulent, it is a fabulously concentrated,
hedonistic effort. This is what "pleasure" drinking is all about.
Forget terroir, and all the pseudo intellectuals with their phony
rhetoric about transparency, and criticism of wines that "taste
too good." This is uncompromised, unadulterated, pure pleasure."
The Wine Advocate. |
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