Dylan Grigg makes really just one wine. Actually, there’s a tiny bit of rosé as well, but his old vine Barossa Grenache is our interest.

What is Clark Foyster Wines, a noted champion of cool and elegant wines, doing in this hot dry corner of Australia? It might surprise you, but this IS an elegant and cool wine. Grenache used to be unfashionable, but no longer. Vinya Vella 2023 (which actually was a very cool year) has super perfumes, smooth texture in the mouth. The wine feels delicate and silky, fresh and elegant, while showing the richness and ripeness of its climate.

Vinya Vella wine is made in tiny quantities: around 3,000 bottles per year so far. This quantity can grow modestly in the future, and the wine has every sign of being a Cult-in-the-making.

Vinya Vella 2023 is now available Duty Paid or In Bond:

£145 in bond per case of 6 x 75cl

£195 duty paid and delivered inc VAT per case of 6 x 75cl

Dylan Grigg – 2026 Halliday Viticulturist of the Year

We’ve known Dylan since the early days of our partnership with Mac Forbes when he worked as Mac’s viticulturalist before returning home to South Australia to complete his PHD studies on old vines. After that, he lived for 3 years in Catalunya, where he looked after old vine Garnacha for Anna Espelt’s project. His viticultural consultancy business grew, and he was advising the previous owners of Vinya Vella when they informed him, they had decided to sell the 6 ha block. He barely hesitated, and with support from friends and family, completed the purchase in time for the 2021 harvest.

The Vineyard

The vineyard is located in Vine Vale, in the Eastern Barossa. This is a perfect location for Grenache with its deep, sandy loam. Think of the great terroirs for Grenache: sand is common to most of them. Dylan says: “Here the soil is special due to its very deep water table and very sandy profile which overlies a sandy yellow-red clay”. These attributes mean vines have moderate nutrition from the sand in spring, for growth, yet long term availability of stored water within the deep clay to remain healthy in a hot dry summer.

And these are Very Old Vines, ungrafted, with a story. Dylan writes about it here: Vine Age: Viticulture in Vine Vale is Old, Vinya Vella is Very Old. His vineyard forms a part of the family of original Grenache vines, brought from Europe (France) in the mid 19TH Century, before Phylloxera in the late 19C destroyed all the mother plants. So, in pockets of Australia, (and South Africa), can be found the oldest vines of Syrah on earth (and the ten times rarer Grenache). There are only 23 hectares of Grenache older than 125 years in Australia.

Winemaking

Winemaking for Dylan is simple as he is not overly interested in it. A bit of whole bunch, into foudres for 6 months, and unfiltered bottling. There’s no winemaker ego at work here. For Dylan, it’s all about the vines and their relationship with the climate and the soil. It’s just about transferring the unique character of the terroir into the bottle as purely and simply as possible. At Clark Foyster Wines we are VERY interested in that.

But nobody is more passionately engaging than Dylan when he talks about vines in general, and his in particular. He can’t call them his children as they are all twice his age, but you get the idea. He maps and assesses each single plant in the old block. He carries with him a tattered, folded A3 page with an Excel spreadsheet showing the size, health, estimated age and productivity of each individual vine. He clearly loves them all, (and probably has names for each of them).