Vinya Vella Old Bush Vine Grenache 2023
96 Points

Dylan Grigg is a bit of a gun at this grenache thing. I went to a tasting of the variety in the Barossa a while back (a benchmarking tasting with top-shelf grenache from around the world) and the Vinya Vella was at the pointy end for me. It's just so perfumed and pretty with come-hither aromatics that are hard to refuse. Red cherry, satsuma plum, raspberry pip and cranberry, daubed with citrus blossom high tones, gingerbread, souk-like spice, dried meats and earth. The wine's shape and flow on the palate is mesmerising, all supple, savoury and alluringly spicy with a bright mineral cadence and a tension and delicacy that impresses a great deal.

Dave Brookes

Vinya Vella Old Bush Vine Grenache 2022
95 Points

A fitting follow up to the lovely 2021 release, here 33% whole bunches and matured for 11 months in old oak puncheons. Dreamy red cherry, satsuma plum and mulberry fruits with dabs of exotic spice, amaro herbs, cola, pressed wildflowers, ginger cake, dried citrus rind, char siu and earth. Silken and wonderfully detailed with a gorgeous ginger spice, sensual fruit core, perfectly judged whole bunch work and a long, balanced, savoury exit.

Dave Brookes

Vinya Vella Old Bush Vine Grenache 2021
95 Points

Dylan Grigg knows a bit about old vines. He's got a PhD on the subject. So he knows that his 6ha in Vine Vale, 4ha of which are very gnarled is a very special site indeed. The wine from these old vines is a beauty. Composed, textural and pure with gingery spice, some bunchy verve and complexity and a purity of fruit and savoury end point that is bang on the money.

Dave Brookes

Vinya Vella Old Bush Vine Grenache 2024
96 Points
Campbell Mattinson

Stamp the name Vinya Vella on your brain. These wines are wonderful. Buy this 2024 Old Vine release. There’s your review.

Old Vines here translates to a Barossa Valley vineyard at Vine Vale that’s circa 120 years old. Bush vines. The pictures on the Vinya Vella site are great – here. ‘Viticulturist to the stars’ Dylan Grigg is the human behind the endeavour.

I love the fact that there’s a burst of sweet, raspberried fruit sitting in the centre of this wine, in amongst the savoury spiciness. Sweet fruit isn’t the enemy; savouriness isn’t the saviour; joy is an honouring of the past as much as it is of the present. This wine presents the gamut, its buoyant aroma and structured, pristine fruit sitting pretty in an old sea bed of herbs, spices and dried citrus rind characters that present like rusks. Over the way there’s a bonfire of cuttings; you can just detect the smoke. The Barossa is alive in this wine. This is a grenache that feels spring-heeled. It’s a pearl.

Vinya Vella Old Bush Vine Grenache 2023
95 Points
Campbell Mattinson

The dry rakes of spice through the pure, ripe fruit. This is another beautiful grenache from the Vinya Vella vineyard. Violets, blueberries, licorice and raspberry characters run with sweet spice and more fresh florals. The tannin here makes the wine stand up straighter. The garden flower aspect gives it an exotic vibe. This is light, bright and impressive, at once, and it’s also delicate.

Vinya Vella Old Bush Vine Grenache 2022
95 Points
Campbell Mattinson

This is a treat. It’s a beautiful grenache. Smoke, red berries, crushed spice and a mix of dried herb, earth and saltbush-like characters do the bulk of the talking but the magic is in the swerve of dry tannin, the way fruit pushes all the way through, and the general air of woodsmoke and meat. There’s a bit to be spellbound by here. Talk about presence, this wine has it in spades.

Vinya Vella Old Bush Vine Grenache 2021
93+ Points
Campbell Mattinson

There’s plenty of heft here but it’s controlled, it’s fresh, and it’s balanced. It’s also only modestly influenced by oak. Black cherry flavours almost make it into plum, or even into red licorice. Sandalwood characters morph into dried herb, and then into leather and orange peel. There’s good tannin here, dry and far-reaching, and a sandy soil aspect, dry and crackling. Alcohol warmth is my only quibble but then, it’s pretty much par for the territory. In so many respects, this is excellent.

Vinya Vella Bush Vine Grenache Rosé 2024
93 Points
Campbell Mattinson

This is a ripping rose. Wow this is more-ish. Strawberry, red cherry, watermelon and sweet spice notes, with twigs and florals tossed through. It’s a rosé to its back teeth and yet it has an intensity; it makes an impression. It carries beautifully through the finish too. And then notes of chalk and citrus rind seal through the back palate just the deal. This is a pearler of a rosé.

Vinya Vella Bush Vine Grenache Rosé 2023
93 Points
Campbell Mattinson

There’s a bit more flesh to this 2023 than there was with the 2022, and it’s all the better for it. This is a lovely rosé. Copper-coloured with a hint of crimson, both red cherried and raspberried, tipped with orange-like notes, and both succulent and dry through the finish. It’s scented, dry, juicy and more-ish; everything you’d want in a rosé.

Vinya Vella Bush Vine Grenache Rosé 2022
90 Points
Campbell Mattinson

New outfit out the Barossa. It started with just one barrel but, thankfully, things are progressing from there. It’s good to see both Bush Vine and Rosé in the name of a wine – or I think so, anyway.

Pale crimson in colour and refreshing in the glass. This is all raspberry, strawberry and earth, though its lightness introduces a cranberried aspect. It doesn’t have a lot of flavour, that said, though it has texture, and that helps to fill it out. We don’t often say this of rosé but another 6-12 months in bottle will be beneficial; it will add just a little more flesh, and it will be all the better for it. For now it works for its dry, squeaky-clean refreshment.

2023 Vinya Vella Old Vine Grenache

For a wine made from low-yielding, very old bush vines, this wine is surprisingly bright, fresh and medium-bodied. Wild-fermented with 33 per cent whole bunches, the rest whole berries, pressed into old puncheons, bottled after 10 months, the wine has a scarlet translucence in the glass, pretty aromatics – rose petals, cinnamon, crunchy red berries – and a shiny red cherry character in the mouth, supported by fine, savoury, dusty tannins. Gorgeous.

2023 Vinya Vella Bush Vine Rosé

This pale, dry rosé is made from younger grenache and mataro vines at Vinya Vella, most planted 30 years ago, some planted much more recently from cuttings taken from the oldest vines on the property. It’s an elegant and savoury expression of the style, with some of the spiciness and prettiness of the red produced from the same vineyard, but less of the intensity and more freshness.

2023 Vinya Vella Old Vine Grenache
95 points

He's nailed it again. This is a delicate and expressive Grenache from Dylan Griggs's humble Vinya Vella label.

Juicy raspberries are the lead act and you want for nothing more than an encore. Deliciously medium bodied, ripples of blueberries and mulberries muse and are framed by soft spices and a magnificent length that just purrs. A little flash of orange peel teases and adds to the interest as those raspberries do concentric circles around the mouth only to have those spices chase them down. Give me it all - what a beauty!
Drink to five years+

Vinya Vella Bush Vine Grenache Rosé 2024
93 Points

Made predominantly with Grenache and a splash of Mataro tossed in for good measure, this is a step up from the 2023 release.

It sees 36 hours skin contact and a rose gold appearance is the result. Orange peel and some negroni like things reach forward on an inviting introduction. Bone dry with an attractive creaminess that lies low, there is a red apple crunch following the white strawberry, white cherry and red currant fruit. The textural drive has a gravitational pull calling me back time and again and, to be honest, it is hard to resist the call. A supple and persistent finish caps of a cracking drinking. Find this and you'll be better for it.
Drink now.

"There is no viticulturist more qualified to work with Australia’s precious old-vine resources than Dr Grigg."

Full Article Here.

"This year we welcome 61 new wineries to the Companion. All the producers nominated for this award are exciting additions either to the Australian wine landscape, to Halliday Wine Companion, or both."

Full Article Here

"There’s a secret weapon in modern Australian wine and his name is Dr Dylan Grigg."

Full Article Here.

"When viticultural expert Dylan Grigg bought his plot of old-vine grenache in the Barossa, it was a mess. Now it’s a destination for travelling winemakers."

Full Article by Max Allen Here.

"A new name to watch for lovers of old-vine and new-wave Grenache"

Full Article by Max Allen Here.

Max Quigley on why Grenache is the way forward in South Australia

Read about new wave Grenache here