Cold and old. Pewsey Vale Riesling vines in the cool Eden Valley come from old stock. They can trace their lineage back to 1832 and the Busby collection of vines.
In 1847 Joseph Gilbert planted Eden Valley’s first vineyard and one of Australia’s first high-altitude, cool climate sites. It is almost certain that these vines were cuttings from the Busby collection – 678 varieties from France and Spain that came to Australia on convict ships in 1832.
In 1961 Pewsey Vale’s then owner Geoff Angas Parsons, knowing his property once incorporated the region’s earliest vineyard, paid a visit to his friend Wyndham Hill Smith of Yalumba with a proposal to restore the vineyard, replanting it to Riesling. Wyndham agreed quickly and the first vines of the modern Pewsey Vale Vineyard were planted on the contours of the slopes in 1962. These cuttings were sourced from another Eden Valley vineyard, and records show that those vines too were descended from Busby’s collection, if not the original Pewsey Vale vineyard.
Aussie Riesling may be up and coming, but its roots go deep.