Last week I caught up with boutique Barossa producer Dean Hewitson (pictured) of Hewitson in London. Fresh out of the inaugural Grenache Symposium in the Rhone Valley, Hewitson was in fine fettle. As well he might be. He’s an avid fan of Rhone varieties and, at least as importantly, distinguished old vines so, like other delegates, it’s a cause for concern that some 40,000ha of Grenache has been grubbed up worldwide in the last decade.
Age and breeding
While industry giants like Fosters and Constellation have been divesting themselves of vineyards and growers, Hewitson has steadily amassed an enviable portfolio of old (nineteenth century) vine material under his eponymous label, started in 1998. Take the Grenache vineyard planted in 1880 whose fruit features in Hewitson’s Miss Harry. It’s but one of many dry grown old vineyards whose deep root systems show consistency of quality and quantity year in year out.
But just as important as age is “breeding,” a concept to which Hewitson was introduced by the late great Len Evans, with whom he had a pivotal one-to-one tutorial in 1988. Hewitson says Evans assessed the wines in terms of balance, structure, power and concentration of fruit, but especially breeding. It brought home to him that, without breeding, you can’t have truly great wine. Provenance and pedigree matter.
Unsurprising then that the apple of Hewitson’s eye is the Old Garden vineyard (pictured below), planted to his signature variety, Mourvèdre in 1853 – apparently the world’s oldest Mourvèdre vineyard. Eight original rows are the source of his single vineyard wine of that name and the cuttings from which Baby Bush Mourvèdre is sourced. Hewitson surmises that the Old Garden’s eight rows have survived for no reason other than that they were the vineyard’s fittest. So well adapted are they to their deep bed of sand over limestone (all that remains of an ancient lake) that, even when the temperature hits 40 degrees, the Old Garden’s vines keep going, leaves pointing directly at the sun, while others droop, stomata closed.
If they could speak, Hewitson says this row of eight could bear eloquent witness to the fashions and fads of the Australian wine industry. Old records show that, originally 30 to 40 times the size, the Old Garden once stretched all the way to the church and was planted just to Mourvèdre, before being progressively grubbed up for more fashionable varieties. For many years, Hewitson reckons that the grapes would have been blended into so-called “Port”, then “Burgundy” or “Claret.” In the 1970s, growers were paid to irrigate, overcrop and pick early for a cheap sparkling pink wine – Hewitson admits then “smart winemaking to tell truth…”. Coming back to the present, the upshot is that Hewitson now controls around 15% of the Barossa Valley’s Mourvèdre. This includes vines propagated from the Old Garden cuttings by his growers and which he has himself planted near the winery he built in 2008. With more and more interested growers, he reckons that the variety’s future in the valley is assured.
Traditional winemaking
With such a rich heritage of vineyards at his disposal, when it comes to winemaking, Hewitson draws his inspiration from France where he worked in the 80s and in 1995. His aim? “Beautiful wines to have on the table with food,” so simple, traditional winemaking methods are the order of the day. All his reds finish fermentation in French oak barrels and are left on the lees unracked. Lees ageing without racking risks reduction but, says Hewiston, only if there’s a nutrient imbalance in the vineyard. Get it right and it accounts for the beautiful texture of his wines, which I’d summarise as iron first in velvet glove. The fruit and lees are the velvet. Minerality and tannin are the fist which deliver a long, linear, extended finish. A slow mo air punch if you like.
In 2008, Hewitson shifted red winemaking operations to his new winery at no. 1 Seppeltsfield Road. In a vintage when the vines endured 12 days at temperatures of 40 degrees plus, the timing could not have been better – Hewitson says “to make any decent wine was an achievement.” Aside from the advantage of old vines, he explains “what saved us was the new winery – we had the room and space to pick when required.” As much I can confirm from the tasting – the 2008s were more than hald decent!
The wines
Hewitson Gun Metal Riesling 2008 (Eden Valley) - relatively forward given the vintage showing a talc, floral nose and an equally pretty palate with sweeter, developed lime cordial notes starting to show, cut with lemony acidity and an underlying minerality to the finish. 12.5% £14.95 Berry Brothers & Rudd
Miss Harry 2008 (Barossa Valley) – this Grenache Shiraz Mourvèdre blend is named after Hewitson’s daughter. Grenache, always at least 50% of the blend, is sourced from old, dry grown vineyards, the oldest planted in 1880. Hewitson prefers to use old oak to show off the variety’s “strawberries and cream.” It’s a lovely bright ruby hue with black and red cherries and strawberries and cream on the nose, which follow through in the mouth. There’s more depth than the nose suggests, with complexing fruit spice, hints of saddle soap, leather and lavender adding a measure of restraint. Nice texture too with a subtle (bevelled?) edge of fruit tannin and minerals. Very good. NB Hewitson has grafted vines over to Cinsault and Carignan – late ripening varieties with low sugar and higher acids. This wine includes a dash of Cinsault and future vintages will incorporate both. 14% £16.80, Wadebridge Wines, Reserve Limited, Goode & Lovett, Green & Blue
Hewitson Ned and Henry’s Shiraz 2006 (Barossa Valley) – named after Hewitson’s sons, the grapes are sourced from several vineyards, all of which are planted on terra rossa soils which lend themselves perfectly to Hewitson’s style – “it’s not a big blockbuster – it’s about elegance, fruit, lovely structure and balance.” Ruby in colour, it has a juicy core of well-defined red and black berry fruits, though there’s a certain creaminess too – those lees! A dash of Mourvèdre accentuates the spiciness and adds a savoury, leathery grip to the warm, earthy/mineral finish. 14.5%, £15.85, Berry Brothers & Rudd
Hewitson Baby Bush Mourvèdre 2008 (Barossa Valley) – no, Hewitson doesn’t have a baby called Bush! Rather it’s a reference to the vines’ parentage, for this wine is sourced from cuttings from the Old Garden vineyard, for Hewitson, “a sensational repository of old vines.” The vineyard was planted in 1996 next to the Old Garden. When Hewitson tasted the still slumbering 2006 vintage Baby from barrel in 2007, the vineyard’s pedigree shone through and he determined to make a single vineyard wine. Very spicy on the nose and palate with powerful, sweet ripe black and red berry and cherry fruit well countered by more savoury qualities, dried herbs (lavender) and saddle soap, plus a fine spine of tannin and (iron) minerality. Lovely balance too. Very good. £18, Berry Brothers & Rudd
Hewitson Old Garden Mourvèdre 2007 (Barossa Valley) – Hewitson is not big on new oak, but as he’s got to know this vineyard, the amount has increased to 100% (since 2002). Not that you’d know it, such is the intensely spicy character of this wine, which put me in mind of an aged vintage Madeira wine’s heady concentration of spice box aromas and flavours. And it’s a little funkier, more savoury too. The dial is up a notch on the lavender/saddle soap quotient and the oak plays a part too, with mocha coming through as it opens up. But there’s no doubting the gout de terroir here, especially on the long, tight, intense finish with minerals, liquorice spice and a lick of black treacle amply supported by textured, ripe tannins. £26, Planet of the Grapes, Byrne & Co.
Hewitson The Mad Hatter Shiraz 2006 (McLaren Vale) – a change of gear after Old Garden and, I confess, I found it a little hard to move on from such an exciting Mourvèdre so my notes on this single vineyard Blewitt Springs Shiraz are a little brief! It’s more assertive in its fruit with a terrific concentration of well defined blackcurrant, impressively animated by juicy acidity and lifted spice. Not a blockbuster then and all the better for it. £31, Berry Brothers & Rudd
Sarah Ahmed
The Wine Detective
(Wines tasted 17 June 2010)
