Vinya Vella

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Vinya Vella is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery.

Vinya Vella is a Mattinson 10-Star Winery.
Only the best of Australia’s best wineries are ranked as a Mattinson 10-Star Winery.

Vinya Vella doesn’t make many wines and hasn't been around for very long. It farms a vineyard though that has been growing in the Vine Vale sub-region of the Barossa Valley for over 120 years. It’s the label of Dylan Grigg, who was a finalist in the Halliday Wine Companion’s Viticulturist of the Year category in 2023, and who also made the same publication’s Best New Producer list in 2024. Grigg has a PhD in viticulture and more specifically, in old vines. The old vines that he farms are grown as goblets, or bush vines, and are grenache. Occasionally in Australian wine we see the right person walk onto the right land at the right time. Dylan Grigg and this old bush vine Grenache vineyard are one such occasion. The 2023 Vinya Vella Old Vine Grenache is a wonderful wine. On The Winefront site I scored it at 95/100, calling it “light, bright and impressive”. The 2024 Vinya Vella Old Vine Grenache is as good or better. I wrote of it: “The Barossa is alive in this wine. This is a grenache that feels spring-heeled. It’s a pearl.” This vineyard, once dilapidated, is now prized.

Campbell Mattinson

This article was written by Campbell Mattinson, founder of The Winefront and mattinson, and former chief editor of Halliday.

When you pick up a wine book and see thousands of top-scoring wines, it’s hard to know which wine to choose. Mattinson guides you through this maze, giving you an honest view of the best Australian wines, the best wine stories, the best wine producers, the best value wines and simply, the best tasting wines. Importantly, Mattinson will tell you about the top-rated wines and also about the underrated wines. In short, Mattinson knows Australian wines inside and out.

Mattinson has been a photo-journalist since 1987. For the past 25 years he’s been a voice that you can trust when you’re looking for the best wines. He’s the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He’s a past winner of a Louis Roederer International Wine Media Award, and is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter. He’s not afraid to put a score beside a wine. But what he’d rather do, is tell you the wine’s story.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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