Hentley Farm Wine: Don’t Be Afraid Of The Beast!

When I first discovered Hentley Farm wines a few years back I think I, like most people, was first struck by their wine called “The Beast” as it really is a beast of a wine and it’s one of those names and styles of a wine that you just don’t forget that easily. The wine is rough and tough, and I don’t mean in a bad way, I mean it’s one that will kick your butt – it wears a dog tag; so it must be hard as nails!

Hentley Farm was founded in 1997 by Keith and Alison Hentschke, (“like the Henschke, but with a T” says Keith when I first met him!) who after extensive research of the area settled upon a site in Greenock Creek at Seppeltsfield. Keith tells me that it’s the soils in the Northwest Barossa that enticed him to make wine there, deep red soil covering a bedrock of limestone.

Keith Hentschke

Keith says that when they took over the property, there were vines already growing on the land but they had been eaten and trodden on by the cows that were living on the land at the time. So they pulled the whole lot up and started afresh planting predominantly Shiraz (30 blocks), Cabernet Sauvignon (10 blocks) and “blocks and blocks” of Grenache.

Australia is known for having the oldest vines in the world and asked if he thought the age of his vines was important Keith replied. “Terroir is more important than vine age”, and he may be right as his wines are fantastic, and surely as his vines age this, combined with the terroir means even better days are ahead for the winery.

They make a staggering number of wines at Hentley Farm and there are a few that will immediately grab your attention as being ‘not your usual Aussie wine’. The Zinfandel, for example, is one of those. I don’t often see Zinfandel from Australia and this one, made in a blend of French and American oak is most definitely a Zinfandel. I think nearly everyone would get this in a blind tasting so it says a lot about how true to the grape the winery is making their wines.

Also, they make a GSZ – Grenache, Shiraz, Zinfandel – something I have definitely never seen before. “We wanted to go for something different than the usual Grenache, Shiraz, Mourvedre”, says Keith, and this they most certainly have done. Speaking of Grenache, they also make a 100 per cent Grenache Rosé which is a delightful little summer number. “If you’re happy with sitting on a beach in Marseilles sipping Provence rosé then you might find this one to your liking”, says Keith. And, true to his word, the rosé has great palate weight and a crisp dryness that’s perfect for a sunny day.

We were having dinner in the Kowloon Cricket Club, an apt place for a Brit like myself to be dining with a bunch of Aussies as, of course, the subject of cricket came along. The Aussies seem somewhat pessimistic about their chances of, well, anything come this summer’s Ashes series in England – and I think they’d honestly be rather thinking about, or even just drinking the wines!

Keith is a great orator and public speaker so he explains to us about their Shiraz 2010, actually, a really easy going wine but that packs a bit of a punch. The Barossa makes some truly awful Shiraz but this is not one of them. Yes, it’s a big wine, but there’s none of that super extracted fruit in it, it’s just a nice drinking and food pairing wine. “After James Halliday rated and recommended this wine it completely sold out”, Keith tells us.

So, back to “The Beast”. It’s a 100 per cent Shiraz monster that screams for red meat. It has a little sister too, called “The Beauty” which is a little more feminine and elegant, most certainly due to the blend of Viognier in the wine. I love the Beauty as it’s drinking so smoothly right now, but, give the Beast an hour to open up and it just keeps getting better and better. Speaking of red meat, we had roasted Kangaroo fillet with these wines and the pairing was pretty damn good! It’s been a while since I’ve had kangaroo and I had forgotten how lean the meat is – but Shiraz and Roo seem to have found a place together!

The last two wines of the night that were paired with the dessert were their 100 per cent single block Cabernet called Von Kasper and their top wine, Clos Otto – a 100 per cent single block Shiraz. It’s interesting to try a Cabernet from Barossa as it’s not a grape usually associated with the area, but it was a pretty decent and rather refined wine. The Clos Otto was a delightful wine, just the perfect weight and density for a Shiraz, far from overbearing and made an excellent substitute for dessert. I don’t mean that it was sweet, far from it, it’s just I would rather drink and savour this wine without the added tastes and flavours that come from dessert.

Keith is a great guy to have dinner with as he’s outgoing and passionate about his wines. Of “The Beast” he thinks that the 2010 vintage will probably outlive him! It’s great to have wines from the Barossa that buck the trend and it’s great that there are more wines emerging from Australia that are breaking down the barriers of perception that people still hold – be it Aussie Chardonnay being undrinkable or Barossa Valley Shiraz all being overly extracted and fruit sweet. Hentley Farm is just one of a handful of Aussie wineries available in Hong Kong that really display Australia’s ability to make fantastic wines and I think I may need a beauty and the beast in my cellar pretty soon.

Hentley Farm wines are available in Hong Kong from Cuvées and you can contact Kit Millar on kit@cuvees.com or go to their website www.cuvees.com for more information.