Dean Hewitson captures the essence of history and the magic of old vines and bottles it. Dean's passion for wine is undeniable and his desire to share this passion is even greater. This led him to a life in which he creates wine purely for the enjoyment of others. Dean has been very fortunate to be tutored by some of the best winemakers and wine scientists in the world, he is therefore able to draw on a very wide spectrum of ideas, practices, philosophies and experiments. Each variety has been selected on the basis of being able to produce a world class wine from the old vineyards of South Australia. Geographical isolation and, in part, a fluke of human non-intervention have preserved pre-phylloxera vineyards that are more closely linked to the original clones from Europe than anywhere on earth.
If you're of the mind that Australian wine needs another quality and style revolution, then allow me to introduce you to Dean Hewitson. He makes two whites and four reds that are admired from a technical and stylistic point of view, and he makes wines ordinary people can drink without risk of their taste buds assuming crash-position. And he does all of this in an old milk factory in the old industrial part of Adelaide. The winemaking journey started for Dean Hewitson at Petaluma. He was a winemaker there for 10 years. During his stint at Petaluma, Hewitson also managed to work vintages in France and in the US, in Oregon, completing a masters of food science and oenology in California. Dean thinks that wine should be a drink rather than a statement. Hewitson lets the wine do the talking.
