Hewitson Old Garden Mourvèdre 2002

Hewitson Old Garden Mourvèdre 2002

  09:43    Stu.

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"Making this wine is not a challenge,

it's a humbling experience"

- Dean Hewitson, CEO & Winemaker, Hewitson Wines 

Made from eight rows of Mourvèdre, reputed to be oldest of the variety in the world, approaching 160 years now.  Dry grown, all original - no replants.  From the Rowland Flat sub-region of the Barossa Valley, situated in the perfect soil for Mataro: deep sand over Limestone.  It's quite amazing to comprehend that this wine is a living link to the origins of settlement of the Barossa Valley and its wine industry.  It seems that it's only now that old vine material is starting to be truly appreciated.  The Barossa Valley has an old vine charter, these vines fall into the top tier of Ancestor Vines.

2002 was the first year that Hewitson placed the wine into 100% new French oak.  Now approaching ten years of age, this wine is hitting it's straps.  Herb, tobacco and leather abound initially.  Given some time, some perfume shows itself.  The palate is earthen, there's more tobacco and leather.  More than this, the wine shows incredible depth.  Yes it's a touch raisiny, but it's rustic charm more than compensates for this.

The spice starts to build early on in the mid-palate, continues, providing a focal length through the middle.  Tannin is dry and chalky.  There's a fair burst of heat present, initially distracting, it soon fades into the background.  Over the course of the evening the wine softens a little, yielding some coffe-ish notes - Camp Coffee Essence.  The overwhelming memory is of that length.  Quite a remarkable wine, both in the context of a single variety wine and also given its historical significance.

Source: Retail, Cru Bar

Price: $75 ($45 on release)

Alcohol: 16%

Closure: Cork

Website: www.hewitson.com.au

Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/TheVinsomniac

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De Iuliis Aged Release Semillon 2002

De Iuliis Aged Release Semillon 2002

  08:42    Stu.

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First up, bottle image: 'borrowed' from Tim Cohen over at 'Cooked & Bottled in Brunswick' - I hope he doesn't mind :)

I'm just starting to appreciate the charms of good aged Hunter Semillon.  I picked this up retail for $20, I was trying to help Patrick Haddock - who was in the Hunter - promote twitter by engaging with Hunter winemakers.  This was the result.

Winemaker guidance is drink until 2012 and I could see that it was peaking in terms of its development.  A beautiful golden straw colour in the glass, presenting subtle honey and toasty notes on the nose.  The palate showed some petrol, but it was the citrus burst of lemon that shone.  It had no real length to speak of, though the toasty notes did linger and fade to a pleasant conclusion.

To see where this wine was at two years ago, pop on over to Jeremy Pringle's Wine Will Eat Itself site.

Source: Retail, Cru Bar

Price: $20

Alcohol: 11%

Closure: Cork

Website: http://www.dewine.com.au/

Follow me: http://twitter.com/TheVinsomniac

[Edit: This post was edited on 29/03/2011 to correct my spelling of the winery name]

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BYO Favs & Pizza

BYO Favs & Pizza

  13:28    Stu.

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Excuses out of the way first: I'd originally intended to use this site as a means of documenting and sharing what I was drinking. I failed. The posts may be more sporadic than originally intended, but I am hopeful that an experience had on Friday 13th August may well contribute to the ongoing presence of this site.

The background: a dinner held in Brisbane by Stewart Noble of WineWithoutBS forged some initial relationships with some keen foodies and winos in the Brisbane area. Stew then held a Winter Reds dinner in South Australia at which some of the Brisbane attendees also attended (the author was not one of them).

Stay with me here....I feel context is very important.....One of the attendees at the SA dinner was David Bowley, winemaker at Vinteloper Wines (you can see David's lofty presence in the photo on the WineWithoutBS page) and David's wines were also tasted at the dinner, making quite an impression. Suffice to say, the Brisbane attendees at the SA dinner purchased some of the Winteloper wines and were kind enough to offer to share them with a group of avid consumers.....

The BYO Favs & Pizza Dinner

The BYO Favs & Pizza Dinner was held at Vespa Pizza in Merthyr Road, New Farm on August 13th. The attendees were all known in some way to each other, but mainly these were relationships forged through a shared love of the good drop and food, and underpinned by a fairly active presence on the social networking site Twitter.

The Dinner was a fairly simple concept, each attendee was to bring a bottle of a favourite wine, around the $25-30 mark. The wine was to be presented anonymously - covered in a brown paper bag - introduced by the individual who had brought it along and then enjoyed. There was no scoring, there was a little discussion, but the prime goal was to share and enjoy.

The Wines

There were eight attendees in total, meaning eight wines. Some initial discussion took place beforehand in order to place the eight wines into a logical drinking order that would hopefully assist in the appreciation of the wines.

Wine 1: Grosset Springvale Watervale Riesling 2009

Wine 2: Vinteloper Watervale Riesling 2010

Wine 3: Stella Bella Sangiovese Cabernet 2007

Wine 4: Rockford Moppa Springs GSM 2002

Wine 5: Yalumba Cigar Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

Wine 6: Teusner The Independent Shiraz Mataro 2008

Wine 7: Tahbilk Cabernet Sauvignon 2004

Wine 8: Vinteloper Shiraz 2008

Bonus Wine courtesy of one attendee with the foresight to bring an extra bottle - props to that man - you know who you are: Samuel's Gorge McLaren Vale Grenache 2006

There are no tasting notes. This evening was about sharing good wine with some new friends; whilst the relationships may have been formed through 21st Century means like twitter, there was something very old fashioned in the sharing of the food and wine around a table that reinforces such friendships.

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