Inside Henschke: Gwyn Olsen reveals what it takes to make Hill of Grace and Mount Edelstone

In this episode of the Halliday Wine Companion Podcast, Anna Webster sits down with Gwyn Olsen, senior winemaker at Henschke, one of Australia’s most iconic family-owned wineries. Gwyn’s path into wine was anything but predictable. Born in Cairns and raised in Indonesia, she went on to study biochemistry before discovering winemaking through postgraduate oenology at the University of Adelaide. From her first vintage in the south of France – a job she landed thanks to Google Translate – to roles at Villa Maria, McWilliam’s, Mount Pleasant, Briar Ridge and Pepper Tree, Gwyn’s career has been shaped by science, resilience, family-owned wine businesses and a love of site-driven winemaking. Now based in the Barossa’s Eden Valley, Gwyn shares what it is like to work with some of the most famous vineyard sites in Australia, including Hill of Grace, Mount Edelstone, The Wheelwright and Cyril Henschke. She talks about the pressure of making wines with such deep history, the importance of patience in the winery, and how small one-percent improvements in picking, topping, sulphur, oak and blending can help protect and elevate Henschke’s legacy. Anna and Gwyn also explore the story behind The Nurturer, a bright, crunchy new Henschke wine inspired by Prue Henschke’s experimental plantings, plus the future of Lenswood, sustainability, old vines, biosecurity and what succession might look like inside one of Australia’s most respected wine families.