Hewitson Bud Wood GSM 2018
- 94
- $50
- Drink by: 2022-2032
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We keep seeing really exciting GSM blends from the Barossa and McLaren Vale, and long may it continue. This one is right at the forefront of delicious, impressive offerings. Dean Hewitson and his team obviously have great suppliers from which they source their fruit, vineyards which are clearly home to classic old vines. The Grenache is sourced from a single vineyard, over a hundred years old. The Mourvèdre is made of cuttings originally from the Old Garden vineyard and is grown as bush vines. Their Shiraz comes from the classic Barossa red loam over clay. Maturation is in older French barrels.
The colour is a soft red with an ever-so-slightly pale rim. Strawberries just leap out of the glass. Gorgeous now with notes of herbs, cassis and spices but it is the strawberries which rule! Hints of a strawberry milkshake. The palate moves more to darker fruits and berries with blackcurrants and chocolate emerging with excellent length and balance. Love this. Drink now and over the next ten years, though I am betting that most of it gets drunk long before the decade expires.
Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.
