Hewitson Mad Hatter Barossa Valley Shiraz 2020, Australia $42.95 per bottle x 6 bottles, 96 points
Hewitson Mad Hatter Barossa Valley Shiraz 2020, Australia $42.95 per bottle x 6 bottles, 96 points
Mad Hatter is not a reference to Alice in Wonderland, rather it is the nickname Dean Hewitson's closest friends have called him for many years. And why mad? Anyone who has spent more than five minutes with Hewitson will surely be able to explain. Wine with breeding-responsive, evolutionary wine-making that's never locked into a formula. A blend of Shiraz, chosen from premium parcels of fruit each year to best express the quality of vintage.
Notes:
This delicious offering shows rich blackberry upfront with toasted spice, vanilla oak and rich floral notes, leading to a silky-smooth palate displaying plump mouthfeel backed by finely infused tannins, finishing long and velvety. At its best: now to 2036.
· Highly rated 2020 vintage- 96 Wine Pilot
Hewitson Winery
Established in 1998, Hewitson winery is situated in the heart of the Barossa Valley on the historic Seppeltsfield Road and boasts some of the oldest vines in the world. Our fruit is sourced from these dry-grown, pre-Phylloxera vineyards of the Barossa Valley and also single site vineyards in Eden Valley, McLaren Vale and the Adelaide Hills. We believe great wines are the expression of the soils they are grown in and in the seasons they grow. Through knowledge and experience we strive for balance, structure, concentration, power and breeding.
The Region
BAROSSA VALLEY
Nestled in the heart of South Australia’s famous Barossa Valley lays Hewitson’s Old Garden, an ancient vineyard of Mourvèdre planted in 1853 by Friedrich Koch. Old Garden has seen the entire history of Australia’s wine industry evolve around it. Having survived floods, fires, famines and the worldwide spread of Phylloxera in the late 1800s, this oldest-known surviving planting of Mourvèdre recently celebrated its 160th Birthday.
Eight rows of this rare and unique planting remain to this day at Rowland Flat and produce winemaker Dean Hewitson’s much-lauded single-vineyard table wine bearing the Old Garden name. He recognised the potential of these ancient dry-grown vines back in 1998, which until then had only been used to make fortified wines, blended table wine and sparkling wine.
“One of the most valuable things I learnt is that the best wines in the world come from those optimal conditions where the grapes ripen just before the season closes,” comments Dean Hewitson. “The Old Garden grows in two metres of sand over limestone leaving the bunches dry and healthy. Mourvèdre is an extremely late ripening variety and these conditions allow harvesting at the end of the season with perfect maturity.” - Dean Hewitson.
Geologists have confirmed that the Old Garden sits on what was the bottom of an ancient lake, once part of the Para River. The secret to the vines’ longevity is their extremely deep roots going down 10 metres into the ground.
“The roots of these vines are so deep that even on the hottest day, while every other vine in the Barossa Valley has shut down, The Old Garden’s leaves are bright and perky, tracking the sun as if each leaf is a radar,” he adds. “This depth of root system helps provide a wonderful evenness in the wine, year after year.” - Dean Hewitson.
Also located in the Barossa Valley lays ‘selection massale’ from the 1853 planting of Old Garden Mourvèdre. One of the first things Dean Hewitson did when starting Hewitson Wines in 1998 was take cuttings from the Mourvèdre vines, in which he created the Baby Bush vineyard. The Baby Bush vines now have a minimum age of 10 years.
As well as our pride and joy Mourvèdre plantings, Hewitson produces wine from a number of other plots in the Barossa, including the Falkenberg shiraz, Dorrien bank shiraz and Duck Ponds road Sangiovese vineyards.
DEAN Hewitson
Dean completed his winemaking degree at Australia’s world-famous Roseworthy Agricultural College in 1986. He then spent a decade “getting hishands dirty” in one of Australia’s leading wineries.
It was time to “hit the road”.
Dean travelled throughout France, working vintages and visiting regions including Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Beaujolais, The Rhone and Provence. All this “old world” experience gained was not enough to quench Dean’s appetite to learn more.
Dean then travelled to California to study at the renowned UC Davis, California, completing his Masters in Winemaking and at the same time immersing himself in the wines of Santa Barbara, Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley, Monterey, Oregon and Washington State.
Now he spends his days overseeing the winery and production and developing export and domestic markets …and often found “throwing a snag” on the barbecue for the winery team.
