Interview with the Barossa Valley’s Dean Hewitson

Dean Hewitson makes wines from some of the oldest vineyards in the Barossa, in fact, from some of the oldest vines in the world. Dean has worked all over the world making wine but in 1997 decided to start his own winery called Hewitson and now makes arguably some of Australia’s best wines. In town last week to celebrate the 160^th anniversary of his Mourvedre vines, we caught up with Dean to talk about his old vines, how he got into the winemaking business and I could not resist asking him about his thoughts on how he thinks Australia will fare at this summer’s Ashes cricket in England.

WTHK: So how did you end up with some of the oldest vineyards in the world?

DH: “Knocked on doors. I was in the industry working for another company. I had done my winemakers degree and worked at Petaluma winery for 10 years from 87-97 and I wanted to start my own business so literally went around, saw these old vineyards and knocked on the growers doors. With this one in particular (Mourvedre) he (the grower) did not know me from a bar of soap – I got a lot of “No’s” also – but he said OK and he gave me a go I guess”.

WTHK: You bought the land and the vineyards?

DH: “No, just the long term contract on the land. I struck up a 10 year agreement to buy the grapes but the family still farms the land for us. This is perfect because after so many generations they know more about the land than I ever would. I had first right of refusal and also the option to extend to contract and to buy the land too if they wanted to sell it. After the first 8/9 years we signed on for another 20 years so we have the land until 2028 with the same rights as the original contract”.

WTHK: Does it annoy you when people refer to Australia as a ‘new world’ wine producing country when you are quite clearly one of the older wine producing countries of the modern day?

DH: “Well, great question because what’s old is kind of new again. It’s 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”.

WTHK: Why did you decide to become a winemaker?

DH: “I actually got accepted into study film producing then got to the dancing and singing auditions and I thought ‘maybe I’m in the wrong field here’ as I can’t dance or sing! So looked down the list of options and winemaking was there. My family had a couple of friends who had a very small vineyard that got pulled up on the vine pull but prior to that as a kid I was exposed early on to wine and without that I would have probably never heard of the wine industry. I like the idea of doing something both indoors and outdoors and I’ve always liked plants and things growing – there’s some artistic and scientific side to winemaking which I really enjoy too. I did my undergraduate winemaking degree at Roseworthy and my masters at UC Davis so I’ve got a couple of pretty solid winemaking degrees”!

WTHK: Do you think your experiences outside of Australia helped you to define your own style of winemaking?

DH: “Oh there’s no question about that. You’ve got to travel if you’re a winemaker so if you’re from the old world you’ve got to go to the new world and if you’re from the new world you’ve got to go to the old world, just to understand it. It helps you to understand what you’ve got, just hearing and reading about it isn’t enough, you’ve got to go and experience it and realise that they do certain things for certain reasons”.

WTHK: How did you like your time at Petaluma?

DH: “Oh, at that time it was great because there was Brian Crozer who was the boss, Martin Shaw was there in my first years or so, Len Evans was chairman of the board – it was an extraordinary experience. I worked with Willy Lun, now at Yering Station when we were both young! As a young winemaker it was an unbelievable place to be able to work and learn, especially for us guys when we were in our 20’s”.

WTHK: So you named your Lou Lou Sauvignon Blanc after your wife. How well regarded do you think Australian Sauvignon Blancs are from Adelaide Hills bearing in mind the competition from other Sauvignon Blancs around the world?

DH: “Well, I think our competition is our strength. The opportunity for Adelaide Hills is that in Australia, it’s regarded as the number one spot for Sauvignon Blanc. Our challenge now, and this is what Lou Lou’s all about is about the single vineyard expression of that slope and the soils. You know, we make this wine and we don’t add sugar and we don’t add acid – that’s a pretty powerful statement as a huge percentage of the worlds wine has either one or both of those added to it. Adelaide Hills is recognized for Sauvignon, like Burgundy is for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, and to make those balanced wines without any additions. Lou Lou is all about appellation, and the challenge is to take this message to the world”.

WTHK: Some of your wines have pretty quirky names such as Mad Hatter and Truffle Row. How do you come up with these names?

DH: “Ha ha! Well, Mad Hatter is my nickname! From when I was 18 years old my mates called me the “Hatter” – I won’t go into how that became but it just did with a bunch of us over a long weekend! Truffle Row is an organic vineyard and we planted a bunch of hazelnut trees whose roots have infused truffle spores. So you get that within the expression of soil and this shows in the wines.”

WTHK: What do you drink most of when you are at home?

DH: “Well, I used to drink a lot of beer but I’ve had to cut that out as it puts on so much weight! My cellars full of wine from all around the world and I love to drink our new bottling of our wine to see how they are tracking once they’ve been bottled. It’s nice to have a glass of wine over a few hours and see how it evolves in the glass. That’s kind of working, but in a very relaxed manner. I love drinking Chardonnay, we don’t make one but I love Burgundies, Californian or Australian Chardonnay’s. Overall, at home we drink a lot of different wines”.

WTHK: Are you a cricket fan? Any thoughts on the Ashes this summer?

DH: “Absolutely I am a cricket fan and this July I think we are heading for a drubbing, an absolute drubbing. I can’t see us winning a test or even drawing one. If you want to win a test match, you have to post a decent score and bowl them out – I can’t see us doing either”!

Hewitson Wines are available from Kedington wines in Hong Kong. For more information contact them on info@kedwines.com