Vinya Vella Grenache 2025

Vinya Vella Grenache 2024

If you aren’t familiar with Dylan Grigg’s work, you very soon will be. For an historical time, the winemaker has been the front facing rockstar – the Parker era times, where individuals were placed on a pedestal for their technique, recipe driven winemaking oft blending parcels of fruit from multiple source locations across multiple regions.

The philosophy associated with a piece of land and its surrounding environment being the most important part of the oenological process is one that has long been held in the old world, and has started to become adopted and appreciated here in the new world, albeit in smaller, more specific pockets.

Vinya Vella is one such project – a vineyard just under 6Ha, of which 4 are gnarly old bush vines from the 1900s, in Vine Vale planted on a sand that Dylan had been consulting to prior to his purchase and subsequent ownership and control of since 2021. With over 25 years of international viticulture experience and consultation, a PHD in old vines as well as numerous accolades for his work – it was really exciting to see Dylan lock this parcel down and really push a global perspective on what Grenache from the Barossa could look like.

Last year, Dylan was rewarded for his hard work and dedication with the Halliday award for Viticulturalist of the year, and just this week we caught up to see how the 2025 season has transpired out at his little hamlet in Vine Vale. We've routinely done this for the last 4 years, and to see the impact of every decision he makes, year on year, is such and enjoyable progression.

There's been a few 2025 Grenache that we've seen that haven't handled the vintage that well, the rush of ripening contributing to some individuals picking early and encountering angular and unbalanced tannin structures - or completely missing the boat and offering wines of a clumsy, overtly decadent nature. Not the case here, with that judicious view on farming contributing to a seamlessly balanced and elegant expression of Old Vine Barossan Grenache. The 2025 iteration here is a little darker than historical bottlings, an indication of the drier, warm season, albeit immensely playful with raspberry leaf, peony and wild thyme top notes over a bed of briory, iron file and morello cherry. Its suave and textured throughout, with a beautiful line of filigree sandy tannin that carries this complex interplay of sweet fruit and savoury elements effortlessly.

"Grenache grown at Vine Vale in the Barossa Valley, planted circa 120 years ago. Bush vines. Tended by Dylan Grigg; aka one of Australia’s most treasured, and knowledgeable, wine people.

This wine is at the vanguard of the great Australian grenache renaissance, which is itself a heightened appreciation of Australia’s great grenache vineyards. This release, specifically, is both idiosyncratic and clean, which is a combination that almost always produces joy. Rust notes, pure sweet earth, red berries, sweet herbs, an almost-edginess, an almost yeasty-ness, a contemplation of a dip into the pool of red licorice – without quite jumping in. The tannin here is neither a lake nor slaking, and yet it helps to define the wine. It brings those rust notes, that character that is like an old can of Fanta, opened, in the soil, half-full, still offering something, still worth a slug for the hell of it, in the hot sun. This is a wine with a high score on it and also where the score is not relevant; I’ve never been to the Vinya Vella property and yet drinking this wine, I’m there. Life is the accumulation of experiences and anecdotes. This wine provides a unique one. It’s tremendously enjoyable and deep at the same time." 96 Points - Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front