Man of the Moment

Let’s consider the old and the new world. Australia has the oldest vines in the world but is regarded as new world, I put to Dean. Surely it must annoy Australian winemakers to be considered old world when you are quite clearly one of the older wine producing countries of the modern day?

Dean’s reply is simple and enthusiastic. "It is true we do make wine in the ‘new world’ but we have the oldest vineyards in the world – it’s kind of an oxymoron if you like. The fact that the Barossa Valley has the oldest Shiraz, Cabernet, Mourvedre, Grenache, Semillon and Riesling vineyards in the world means that we are in fact older than the ‘old world’! I think that message is the one that we need to highlight – Australia has the oldest vineyards in the world."

And without these great old vineyards there would be no Old Garden Mourvedre. It must be said, these wines have aged gracefully and, tasting through the different vintages with Dean you can see the passion he has for each wine. "There is a definite and obvious variation in each vintage due to the climatic conditions of each year," Dean says. "The cooler years produce wines with more elegance whilst the warmer years give you more intense and powerful wines."

When push comes to shove, Australia may have a reputation for making mass-produced, easy drinking wines with little to no complexity, but this certainly isn’t the case with Hewitson’s wines and most definitely not the case with the Old Garden Mourvedre. As Dean heads off to Shanghai for the next leg of his world tour celebrating the 160th birthday of these terrific Mourvedre vines, one is left to ponder whether were there not more winemakers with the passion and perseverance of Dean Hewitson, would not a lot more Australian wines be up there with the best wines from the rest of the winemaking world?

Hewitson wines are exclusively imported and distributed in Hong Kong by Kedington Wines. Contact: info@kedwines.com; (852) 2898 9323.