A Coveted Secret In The World's Oldest Mourvèdre Vineyard

Spoken Wines takes you down under to Australia and the oldest Mavedra vineyard in the world. Planted by the first European settlers, they kept a coveted secret for over 150 years. Dean Hewitson, a masterful winemaker in the Barossa Valley, discovered the secret and now has revealed it to the world so the world can fall under its incredible spell. I'm standing in the middle of the old garden vineyard planted in 1853. This vineyard is located at the little hamlet called Rowland Flat which is in the south end of the Barossa Valley where the valley tightens and narrows and forges itself into the Adelaide Hills. We're right at the bottom of the valley with the Parra River running alongside and this unique place and I say unique it was once an old lake bed millions of years ago and an earthquake subsequently drained that lake and has left this sand over limestone floor which I'm standing on. It's really quite a spiritual feeling you know that something so old is still alive and still producing fruit of immense quality is amazing and also walking through these vineyards sampling the fruit but having the opportunity to take those bunches of grapes and turn them into wine and watch that evolve in barrel and then into bottle and watch that bottle evolve over the years is a wonderful feeling and it's a real privilege actually as a winemaker to be able to do that. The vineyard was planted by a guy called Frederick Cock who arrived in South Australia in approximately 1840 from Silesia, Prussia. He was a Lutheran. He built his house over here bringing up eight kids and being a good Lutheran one of the first things on his mind was to build the church and of course times were tough and people did pass away and not only did he have service in the church but then he had to look after them in their afterlife too. So he was a devoted community man and generations later we are now you know celebrating his hard work. All the vineyards were planted in a time when records were less kept so often there would be mixed up cuttings of different vines in a bundle and of course Old Garden 1853 has that same vagary and there's three vines that are not more varied in this vineyard. Two are Dorodeo and one we've identified as Shiraz. This wonderful old Shiraz vine is our mother vine. It's the mother for our Monopole Shiraz. One hectare of Shiraz at the winery, growing in the winery where every vine at our winery is a bud from this vine and thus providing a unique style of Shiraz with its own flavour and tannin profile that no one else or nowhere else in the world can taste. Planted in 1853 still surviving and just a fluke of what happened back then. So I spoke with the family about taking the buds and harvesting the buds. We pruned this vine in such a way that we maximize its buds rather than harvesting the fruit and we harvested the buds and we then set up a nursery where we could multiply those those buds out. So in 2008 I then grafted a hectare of vines that I have at the winery with these buds and so we now have a hectare of Shiraz all from that one vine. So that one vine now becomes a mother vine and our vineyard is a clonal selection expressing this unique flavour and identity of Shiraz that no one else in the world has. Shiraz is a benevolent variety. It shows itself well, it's luscious, it's bright, it's got great colour, it's yummy, it's ripe, it just does so well in Australia. It's a wonderful symbiosis in Australia with Shiraz. The old garden vines are so old that they're very fragile and brittle and we have to hand pick everything that's done by hand in that vineyard. The grapes are harvested by hand and brought to the winery. The fermentation itself in vats lasts for about three weeks and then the post fermentation in barrel and malolactic fermentation lasts for about a month and then we will mature it for a further 16 months in those French oak barrels. We rack it, settle it, bottle it and then we look to, we like to look for about two years in a bottle, a year and a half in bottle before we release it. I feel great wine comes from a great vineyard and that vineyard has grown on a great site. Finding a potential great vineyard is one thing but then the journey of 20 years, 25 years of the incremental changes to keep making this vineyard better and then the incremental changes in the winery keep making that wine better so that 25 years later you have these outstanding vineyards and outstanding wines that really do represent something that's worthwhile. Yeah, when I think of what your legacy will be Dean, it's really respecting these old wines and letting them tell their story through your wine with a single vineyard and I don't know if people can really appreciate that until they taste your wine and see your dedication to continuing that innovation to let those vines express themselves as well as they are. Imagine standing on what seems like sacred ground on one of the oldest vineyards in the world. There I was kneeling in the old garden vineyard videoing up close a 170 year old gnarly vine and when out of the blue came this voice, may I ask what you are doing here? Oh my gosh, panic just rose up to the top and I thought, am I not supposed to be here? It was Leon Koch, the sixth generation of the family who planted this vineyard back in 1853 as they had just came from Europe and settled in the region. Incredible and Leon had not noticed that Dean Hewitson sat already in his pickup right after we were done interviewing him and we were just wrapping up a few shots. Although I could swear Dean wanted to get away from these pesky flies. So did I, but I mean how could you tear yourself away from these vineyards? They're so precious and irreplaceable. They are really historic treasures. Their survival today is thanks to the diligent and the watchful eye of the Koch family. As we noticed. Yes, we definitely noticed. We felt so humbled and honored to be allowed into these vineyards by Dean Hewitson and now we have the privilege of sharing their beautiful timeless beauty with you. And just remember us sitting next to this secret that was kept in that vineyard over all those years, the Shiraz Mother Vine. A fluke of history just carefully preserved for 170 years and discovered by Dean Hewitson and he revealed it to the world by taking these clippings and give it its own vineyard. He planted this vineyard on a very special strip of soil right next to his vineyard. It's called the Golden Mile. It is this very unique perfect terroir of iron rich red loam over deep dark clay over limestone. In this perfect terroir, this monopole Shiraz creates a wine that is like no others. It is as expressive as a Shiraz, but it has these very unique vibrant flavors of raspberry and mulberry layered in chocolate. This wine is very versatile in the food that it can be paired with from something simple like barbecued chicken to spear ribs to like grilled lamb with herbs to smoked eggplant or chipotle flavored sweet potato fries. But because of this chocolate undernote in this wine, it would also go really well with dessert as it pairs perfectly with let's say dark semi-sweet coffee flavored chocolate. And who wouldn't go for that? Yum! Dean also crafts a single vineyard Movedra wine right here from the 170 year old old garden vineyard. The oldest Movedra vineyard in the world. I mean just think about that, incredible. This wine has lovely aromatic notes, fruit perfume, black cherry, and hints of spiced dark chocolate, roasted coffee, and mocha. Oh my goodness, it's rich yet it's nuanced and uplifting making it the perfect pairing with hearty dishes like a braised lamb or grilled venison or even a savory mushroom risotto. Yeah these are two very precious very unique and rare wines. Unfortunately not available everywhere in the world so please go to our website spokenwines.com to find out if and how you can get these wines delivered to your front door. And if you can't get them please drop us a note and maybe we have a few secrets of our sleeve to get them to you. Yes and one of the things that I would like to not keep a secret and this is probably more readily available and that is the Miss Harry. The Miss Harry is a GSM and it is a blend from Hewitson from 75 year old Shiraz, Movedra, and Grenache vineyards that surround the winery. This represents beautifully that incredible quality that Hewitson consistently delivers with its subtle spice and bright earthy red fruit notes. This will pair deliciously with dishes like roasted duck, barbecue ribs, or even a flavorful ratatouille. What is ratatouille? Yeah enjoy this beautiful representation of the Barossa Valley by Hewitson winery by clicking on the link below so you can order them and get them delivered to your front door. And please subscribe to our channel and travel with us to reveal the next secrets from around the world and possibly in your backyard. We are Spoken Wines. Cheers!