Inky opaque black in colour, with a dark purple rim. The emphasis here is immediately on the focus and purity of the wine. Chocolate, licorice, beefstock, leather, sage, black olives, cloves, black jellybean notes and blackberries. Seamless, with cushiony lush tannins, soft as duck-down. Fine acidity, knife-edge balance and extraordinary length. A beautiful wine which should impress over the next forty years. As Stephen says, “it screams Eden Valley”. Love it. And in comparison with the glorious Hill of Grace, here is the real value.

Drink: 2023 - 2063

99 points, Winepilot (April 2023)

Medium deep crimson. Intense blackberry, mulberry praline aromas with mocha sage herb garden notes. Superbly concentrated wine with deep set pure blackberry, dark plum, mulberry fruits, fine slinky tannins, attractive mid-palate richness and underlying mocha, vanilla notes. Finishes firm with chinotto, hint marzipan notes. Superb mineral length, vigour and extract.

Drink: 2025 – 2040

99 points, The Vintage Journal (April 2023)

First bottled in 1952 by Stephen Henschke's father Cyril, this reknowned cuvée is likely Australia's longest consecutively produced single-site wine, from a vineyard planted in 1912. A gem of a old-vine wine in every sense (it is named for the yellow opals once found in the area), it is spectacular in this vintage. The mouthfeel is seductive and supple, carrying trademark savoury bay leaf, sage and peppercorn notes that integrate beautifully into ripe, black bramble and blood plum flavours. Structure for long ageing is assured by firm yet velvety tannins and fresh acidity. A gorgeous, opulent, complex wine that, on several tastings over three days, I preferred to Hill of Grace.

Drink: 2023 - 2045

98 points, Tina Gellie, Decanter (March 2023)

I lived on the property that lies between the Mount Edelstone and Hill of Grace vineyards for eight years. My god it's a beautiful part of the world. Planted in 1912 by George Fife Angus and purchased by Cyril Henschke in 1974, though it had been bottled as a single-vineyard wine since 1952. Picture perfect blackberry and blackcurrant fruits, shades of mixed spice, purple floral tones, earth, licorice, rosehip and crushed quartz. A gorgeous expression of site, pure with long, ripe tannins, lacy mineral-laden acidity providing clarity and drive and a finish that sails on for some time before finishing chalky and sustained.

Drink: 2023 - 2045

98 points, Wine Companion (March 2023)

Deep red with a tinge of purple and a bouquet of forest-floor, autumn leaves, terracotta and balsamic herbs including a trace of mint. It's the aroma of a walk through a deep eucalypt forest on a hot day. The wine is superbly concentrated and yet supple and fleshy in texture, the tannins generous and full throughout the palate, the finish lingering long and the aftertaste dry and cleansing.

Drink: 2023 - 2038

97 points, The Real Review (March 2023)

From 100-year-old-plus vines. “It keeps clocking up the numbers” says Johann Henschke, “such a success story from this vintage. There’s a plushness from 2018, but the aromatics stay true to the wine, a hallmark, but a bit more mystery, perhaps”.

It’s a lush and riper rendition, lots of flavour, lots of creamy, rich, red and black fruit character, vanilla cream, dried salty herbs, toasty elements, peanut brittle and new leather notes to sniff on and to taste, per se. Sticky ribbons of tannin in tow. It’s a good mesh of flavours, dark, brooding, the finish a little skittish with flinty mineral notes, gravel-earth elements and sooty clove spice. Needs time, but a wine powering along with promise.

Drink: 2026 - 2045

95+ points, The Wine Front (March 2023)

The Mount Edelstone vineyard is in Eden Valley and is 16 hectares. It was planted in 1912 by Ronald Angas, classifying the ungrafted, dry-grown vines here as centenarian vines (according to the Barossa Old Vine Charter) at 106 years old. The soils consist of red-brown clay-loam. The 2018 Mount Edelstone Vineyard Shiraz is 100% Shiraz, matured in a combination of 27% new and 73% seasoned oak hogsheads (77% French, 23% American) for 20 months prior to blending and bottling. This is forever one of my favorite wines at Henschke—it speaks so clearly of my perception of Eden Valley. It is equally rocky/mineral/of the earth, as it is saturated in black and red fruits. The tannins are svelte and seamless. The gentle impact of the American oak is evident in the sweet bed of plump tannin and the slight gloss to the fruit. There is a grace and beauty to the palate, as usual. While Henschke rates this great 2018 vintage as being on par with the 2015 and 2016, they put it slightly behind 2012. You make up your own mind, however I am enamored by the wines I have tasted from 2018. Super wine. (14.5% alcohol, pH 3.4, total acidity of 6.47 grams per liter).

96 points, Wine Advocate (April 2023)

Lustrous mid crimson. Quite concentrated nose and almost claret-like impression! Quite a charge of grainy tannins on the finish and a vigorous, assertive palate impression. Ripe fruit in an obvious framework and just a little alcoholic warmth and cinnamon on the finish.

17.5 points, JancisRobinson.com (March 2023)