In 1981, fifth-generation winemaker Stephen, and Prue Henschke purchased a property in the Adelaide Hills with the intention of planting varieties well suited to the cooler climate of the region. The vineyard was originally part of a beautiful valley of apple orchards and natural forest that were destroyed by the Ash Wednesday bushfires in 1983. The pinot noir vineyard has been named after Charles Giles, an early pioneer whose descendants had managed the property as an apple orchard since 1864.