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Hewitson Old Garden Mourvedre
96 points - James Halliday Wine Companion
The wine was matured in 100% new French barriques for twelve months providing structure, while complimenting the grape tannin and the terroir-based flavour profile of black, glazed cherries, dark chocolate, mocha and even orange peel that manifests itself each year in this single vineyard wine. This demonstrates the remarkable nature of the vineyard and is why we are proud to produce a wine of such iconic distinction. 2007 Old Garden Mourvèdre is perfectly poised and quite possibly the finest of the decade. It will age beautifully for at least ten years.
Let's not mince words. This is one of Australia's greatest red wines. From an ancient block of mourvédre vines planted in the 1850s (a century-and-a-half ago!) and from a particularly low-yielding drought year, the nobility of the wine comes shining through. There is amazing concentration and length, but it's not a huge blockbuster: cinnamon oak and dried herbs and a little blackcurrant lead onto a lithe, spicy mouthful of earthy red wine, finishing with fantastically fine tannins. Max Allen, Gourmet Traveller Wine, "Best Buy Wines (Apr/May 09): wines to cellar", April 2009
In 1853 Friedrich Koch planted this Mourvèdre vineyard in the heart of the Barossa Valley in the area now known as Rowland Flat. Nurtured in deep sand over a bed of limestone the vines flourished. By the 1880s the local vignerons had already acknowledged the vineyard as the Old Garden. To the end of the 19th Century, throughout the 20th Century and now into the 21st Century subsequent generations of Koch's family have tended these vines in the traditions of the Barossa: bush vines, no irrigation, hand pruned and hand harvested. Today nothing has changed. Old Garden is likely to be the oldest Mourvèdre vineyard in the world.
Founded in 1998, Hewitson is the result of winemaker Dean Hewitson’s driving passion to produce world-class wine from the historic, dry-grown vineyards in the Adelaide Super Zone, encompassing Barossa Valley, Eden Valley, Adelaide Hills and McLaren Vale. Each of these nine unique wines are crafted to reflect varietal and regional purity.
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