Dylan Grigg, Dr of Vines

J’aime Cardillo speaks to Dr Dylan Grigg, international viticultural consultant and winemaker at Vinya Vella.

NOT LONG AFTER starting as an apprentice chef,

Dylan Grigg found himself pruning vines in the Barossa.

He has since completed his PhD in grapevine age, is an international consultant, viticulturist, and is now the vineyard owner and winemaker behind Vinya Vella.

Like Dylan, Vinya Vella specialises in old vines and grenache. His latest release includes the 2022 Old Bush Vine

Grenache and the 2023 Bush Vine Grenache Rosé.

Dylan says the label came about following a series of fortunate events. After finishing his PhD, Dylan and his family move across to Spain – he and his wife moved with two boys and welcomed their daughter while living abroad.

“It was when I was over [in Spain] that I got put in contact with a couple from America who had just bought an old vineyard. They asked me to come on and consult. When COVID came around, we moved back home, I was consulting on the property, on growing, management and making long-term plans. I rang to talk about harvest dates and they said, ‘This is killing us, but we have to sell the property and would you know anyone interested?’ And I thought, well, it’s an amazing old vineyard, it’s the same soil type I grew up playing around in, and it’s in the Barossa Valley – which while I don’t live there – it is my home region.

“My mum and dad live there, and my ancestors moved there in the 1840s, so I know the area really well. And it seemed to all click into place: PhD on old vines, old vine vineyard, three years living and working in Spain with grenache, and it’s all grenache. Grenache is robust against climate change. It’s growing in deep sand, which is ideal for the flavour structure and aroma profile of grenache that I like. And that’s kind of how it came about.”

THE NAME VINYA VELLA is a nod to Spain and to the Catalans who took the family under their wing. Four days a week, Dylan is a consulting viticulturist under his freelance business Meristem Viticulture. There’s a long list of producers he’s worked with, and there’s a waiting list for wineries looking to work with him.

“I can be in the car driving to the vineyard, and that’s an hour say, and I’ll be on the phone with Gippsland advising on a spray. Then I’ll be on the phone about Tasmania, and also liaising with contractors in the Adelaide Hills. And then at two o’clock when the sun comes up in South Africa, I usually get the odd call from there. Then at around four or five o’clock the phone rings from Spain.” And that one other day Dylan is working on Vinya Vella. “I try to get one day a week at my place. I try not to answer the phone and I jump on the old tractor and it’s my restorative niche to go out there and pull weeds or prune or work as hard as I can.”

When it comes to old vines, dating back to the late

1800s, Dylan says it’s the stories they tell that drew him in. “Plants can’t move like we can, so they’ve developed these other adaptive mechanisms to fit in with their local environment. I find that really fascinating, how these plants we’ve cultured can be in one place for 100, 150 or more years. And not only are they gnarly and beautiful, but if you take another slice and look at them through a really viticulturally nerdy way – they tell a story and then that [story] is conveyed in the fruit that comes off of them.” ⬤