If you stumbled upon the roaring orange glow of a deep, handmade firepit burning chunks of the agave plant, you could think you were in Mexico.
But these days, you could also be in Callington.
Located in the rolling hills of the Bremer Valley is a new venture by Nathan Newell and his family, SA’s first artisan agave spirit.
As you cut through the Newell family property via undulating dirt roads to arrive at the house, you survey your surroundings and something that looks out of place quickly catches your eye.
Fifty or so meters up a steep hill to the north, sits a relic of the area’s copper mining past, 1000sqm of agave – a succulent found in the arid lands of the Americas and commonly used to make spirits such as tequila and mezcal.
The crop at Callington is believed to be about 170 years old, but the Newells never gave the plant much thought until recently.
This new project that Nathan has poured himself into all started with a miserable failure.
“We wanted to keep this property in the family,” he says.
“I’ve got young kids and I want to bring them up here, they’ll have a ball out here.
“I wanted us to have something to do with the property, I looked at what animals don’t destroy – lavender plants.”
In theory, it was a great idea – as the dancing slopes of this area commonly host kangaroos, sand goannas, rabbits and deer.
With 250 lavender plants in the ground and well on their way, Nathan says he was “rubbing (his) hands together”.
Then one day, as all good aspiring farmers do, he went to water his crop.
“They were literally a stump, it was like someone had come in with secateurs and annihilated it,” he says.
Back to square one.
Like all tales worth telling, the next chapter started with some beers.
That’s kind of the romance of the plant as well, in the sense that it puts all its energy into throwing off seeds in its last hurrah and then dies off
In conversation with his dad, Geoff, Nathan found his reason to stay at the property – the spiky succulent up on the hill could be made into a premium spirit.
Bremer Valley Agave was born.
From that point on, it was a love affair with the traditional methods of making the spirit.
“We’ve got to pick the mature plants that are ready to harvest – just before they flower – because they’ve got the biggest amount of carbohydrates before they die,” he says.
“That’s kind of the romance of the plant as well, in the sense that it puts all its energy into throwing off seeds in its last hurrah and then dies off.”
To produce the spirit by hand is an arduous, labor-intensive process.
But Nathan decided against short-cuts, knowing that the story he wanted his new-found spirit to tell required traditional, artisanal methods.
As part of their new spirit-making process, the Newells remove the leaves of the agave plant and take the “piña” or base, to their hand-dug fire pits on the other side of the property.
“At 4am we light the fire and then once that’s burning and heating up the rocks and burning down, we cut the piña into halves and quarters and whatever size we want,” he says.
“Place them in the fire and cover them up with soil and leave them underground for usually, a week, roughly.”
Through that method, the raw agave gradually transforms day-by-day, absorbing the smoke and natural earthy flavors.
“I honestly think we’ll continue to do that tradition, because there’s just something special about us four boys getting together,” Nathan says.
“We had a shot of some other mezcal as we went into the unknown.”
Nathan and his family’s new local, artisanal venture is currently being bottled and a small batch will be available for purchase in the near future.
In each bottle resides a small piece of a brilliant story of history, a love of the process and the thrill of what’s to come.
