Henschke Tappa Pass Shiraz 2022

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Mattinson review of Henschke Tappa Pass 2022.

Henschke Tappa Pass Shiraz 2022
$127, 14.5% alcohol, screwcap, Barossa Valley.

This is the 20th edition of a Henschke Tappa Pass Shiraz. It’s become an important and noteworthy part of the Henschke range. It’s a wine that, over the years, has never lacked flavour, though it’s added finesse to its armoury, as this wine shows. Indeed this release ramps up the complexity too. It tastes of twigs, herbs, ripe plums and redcurrant, with mint, black olive and woodsy spice notes woven throughout. There’s a firmness to this wine, and plenty of fruit, though there’s also more than a passing nod to savouriness. As a result it feels complete. 94 points.

(Footnote: The 2023 Henschke Tappa Pass Shiraz won the coveted Best Shiraz class at the 2025 Barossa Wine Show.)

Campbell Mattinson

This post was written by Campbell Mattinson. Mattinson is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion book, former editor of Halliday magazine, former editor of Australian Sommelier Magazine and founder of The Winefront business. He is the author of five books on wine – four of which were bestsellers (The Wine Hunter, the Big Red Wine Book 2008, the Big Red Wine Book 2009, and the Big Red Wine Book 2010).

Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.

Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. He’s the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He’s a past winner of a Louis Roederer International Wine Media Award; is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter; and is the author of the best-selling novel We Were Not Men. He’s also a winner of a St Kilda Film Festival Award (as writer-director) and is a former winner of the national Best Australian Sports Writing Award. In 2026 three of his photographs were short-listed for the World Food Photography Awards.

Campbell Mattinson, who is 100% independent, has tasted between 5000 and 10,000 wines each and every year for the past 25 years. He tastes blind, in comparative brackets, as often as is practicable.

Campbell Mattinson is a journalist, a photographer, a filmmaker and a wine critic. In all of these mediums his prime motive is to tell people's stories.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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