Old Bush Vine Grenache 2023

Old Bush vines are a challenge to manage, simple on one hand with trellis to support the vines but complex on the other as we must work closely to support and care for these old treasures to continue to grow.

All 2500 vines are pruned to detail depending on the vine health and size. In spring the vines are shoot thinned to minimise wounds made at pruning time and focus growth to points of strength. Leaf plucking is undertaken to expose lower buds and fruit at flowering if required. After veraison bunches that had not coloured evenly were removed reducing the variability between what is left behind.

The undervine area is controlled principally by use of a traditional knife on a 1940’s Fiat tractor and by hand. The very sandy soil is easy to work and dries rapidly in summer to minimise competition from weeds. 

The mid-row is managed according to the season, cover-crops of cereals and legumes are planted in autumn, left to grow all winter and rolled or mown in spring to reduce frost risk. As the sand dries out little re-growth occurs, if it does this is mown again. 

Fruit maturity is judged by tasting and measuring, one eye on the solar radiation accumulation and the other on the baume. Harvested baume is between 13.5 and 14 depending on the day. (we picked across 2 days again here).

14.5% ABV
3.64pH
4.6g/l acidity
Vegan
S02 at bottling
Unfined and unfiltered
Diam closure

The winemaking process is the same as all previous vintages. Winemaking is kept as consistent as possible to follow the seasons and learn the true expression of the site and the year. I am a viticulturist, a vine observer, I am constantly working in the vines and watching and feeling the season to grow healthy even shoots that carry healthy even bunches. With this aim we are refining the viticulture each season so with consistent winemaking we can see the true expression of the site and season. Perhaps I'll adapt some aspects but for now it's a matter of keeping it simple so I can hear and feel what these wild old vines are telling us each year. We take two picks each year only to see what difference this time on the vine provides, this is tiny production so it all ends up in the bottle but we can learn about harvest decisions this way.

The grapes are hand picked and sorted to ensure only the most healthy, mature and clean bunches are retained. These are transported 2km to the cellar at Spinifex where the wines are made.

Harvested 5th March and 15th March, 2024.

Both parcels were treated the same, hand picked and put into 1500L stainless open-top fermenters.

33% De-stemmed whole berries on the bottom
33% Whole bunches in the middle
33% De-stemmed whole berry on top
1% magic

Wild ferment began spontaneously, juice was racked over the top of the tank from the bottom once ferment began. Gentle cap submersion mid ferment and after 8 days on skins when the ferment was slowing, juice was drained off, the whole bunches were foot stomped and the skins and bunches were pressed to tank to finish fermentation.

Once dry the wine was transferred into old oak puncheons for 4 months only and then into stainless on lees. Bottling occurred 6 months later.

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

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.

- Campbell Mattinson, 96 Points, The Wine Front. July 2025.

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