South Australia Wine’s natural home Adelaide is Australia’s wine capital and the industry’s heart Heritage History, experience and leadership Page 02 and soul can be found in South Australia’s 18 unique and distinctive regions. Provenance Distinctive styles from special places Page 03 This is where it all comes together: a proud history enhanced by future thinking; prestigious wines with style and Prestige Australia’s very best wines Page 05 personality created from old vines and modern techniques; a commitment to sustainability and purity; and some truly Personality memorable tourism experiences. Authentic people with vision and passion Page 06 And then there are the names. Penfold’s Grange, the Barossa Purity Natural and sustainable wine Page 08 Valley, Peter Lehmann and Wolf Blass – the list goes on. These special wines, signature sites and larger than life characters Innovation Shaping the future Page 10 are synonymous with a vibrant industry that continues to make the world take notice. Experiences Our wine history may be short by Old World standards, but Welcoming visitors with wine and more Page 11 it is incredibly rich. And the reason for our success and status is quite simple. Barossa / Mt Lofty Ranges Zone Barossa Valley / Eden Valley / Clare Valley / Wine is central to South Australia’s being and dominates Adelaide Hills / Adelaide Plains Page 12 our thinking as clearly as vineyards enhance our landscape. It is at once a way of life, an economic driver and a source of Fleurieu Zone immense pride. McLaren Vale / Langhorne Creek / Currency Creek / We are blessed with a diversity of soils and climates that Southern Fleurieu / Kangaroo Island Page 15 provide a perfect platform for excellence and innovation. But it takes passion and skill to bring potential to reality and to do it Limestone Coast Zone with style. That is the real South Australian story. Coonawarra / Padthaway / Wrattonbully / The following pages provide a brief snapshot of why any Mt Benson / Robe / Mt Gambier Page 18 Australian wine journey must begin in South Australia. You could be here quite a while! Lower Murray Zone / Far North Zone Riverland / Southern Flinders Ranges Page 21 Nearly all of the images in this book are the work of Milton Wordley, a leading Adelaide photographer who has been capturing the spirit of the South Australian wine story for many years. wordley.com.au Additional photographs were also provided by McLaren Vale Grape and Wine Tourism Association: Page 4,15 & 16. Royal Agricultural & Horticultural Society of SA Inc: Page 5. Cape Jaffa Wines: Page 8 & 19. Pike & Joyce Wines: Page 14. South Australian Tourism Commission: Page 11 & 21. The South Australian Wine Story 01 Heritage History, experience and leadership companies with custodianship of some of our finest vineyards. Four other South Australian wineries are members – Taylors, d’Arenberg, Henschke and Jim Barry Wines. As South Australia’s wineries grew and developed in the early years, they were greatly assisted by something that didn’t happen – Phylloxera, the tiny but deadly insect that can permanently sap the health and vigour of even the strongest vines. Strict quarantine measures and good vineyard management ensured the Phylloxera outbreak that ravaged Australia’s eastern states in the late 1800s – and has been equally destructive before and since in Europe and other wine-producing countries – simply didn’t make it to South Australia. Just South Australia’s prestigious place in This was always their intention. to be sure, a formal Phylloxera Act the wine world was born of equal parts South Australian settlers did not just was passed in 1899 – an early sign vision, planning and hard work. And it throw vines into the ground to see of the Government’s commitment to all happened quickly. what might happen. There was a clear supporting the wine industry. commitment to develop a world-class Barely three years after the original wine industry that would both use, and The importance of this cannot be Colony was founded in 1836, a German do justice to, what nature was providing. overstated. It means that South Australia settler saw the immense potential of the boasts some of the oldest established area north of Adelaide we now know as vineyards anywhere in the world. the Barossa Valley, noting a resemblance South Australian settlers to France’s famous Rhone Valley. did not just throw vines Henschke’s iconic Hill of Grace Shiraz, for example, is produced each year Just a handful of years later, vineyards into the ground to see from vines that originate from material were flourishing in the Barossa, McLaren what might happen. brought from Europe in the 1860s. Vale to the south and the nearby This single vineyard Shiraz has been Adelaide Hills (three of modern South It is significant that eight of the 13 acclaimed, and much in demand, since Australia’s pre-eminent wine regions) oldest wine companies or continuously the first bottling in 1958. and our pioneering winemakers were operating brands in Australia are Similarly, the enduring quality of beginning to make their mark. South Australian. Pewsey Vale’s famous Riesling owes Established between 1841 and 1853 much to vines whose ancestry can be they include household names Penfold’s, traced back to the first stocks to be Orlando, Seppeltsfield and Yalumba, brought to Australia. There is no greater alongside Bleasdale, Normans, Sevenhill proof that great wine begins with great Cellars and Oliver’s Taranga. The likes vineyards. They are priceless assets. of Saltram and Hardys Tintara were soon Knowledge is important too, and in to follow. 1936 Roseworthy Agriculture College, Yalumba is of particular note because the first institution of its kind in it is the nation’s oldest family-owned Australia, began teaching the nation’s winery and a founding member of first Diploma of Oenonolgy. Roseworthy Australia’s First Families of Wine now claims some of the world’s great (AFFW), a unique collaboration of winemakers among its graduates. 02 The South Australian Wine Story Provenance Distinctive styles from special places Few wine regions anywhere in the This is one of Australia’s most world capture the meaning and spirit of picturesque and environmentally “terroir” quite like the Coonawarra. conscious wine regions, as well as one of The focal point is the famous “terra the most geologically diverse in the world. rossa”: a cigar-shaped band of rich soil Significant differences in soil, topography just two kilometres wide and barely and weather conditions exist in very close 20 long that is so distinctively red it is proximity, creating an exciting range of clearly visible from the air. But there are options for wineries with vision. other factors at play as well. The Mediterranean climate has The shallow underlying limestone helped winemakers successfully embrace ridge, pure underground water and a Spanish and Italian varieties such maritime climate that produces long cool as Barbera, Fiano, Tempranillo, and ripening seasons all help create unique Mourvèdre, but Shiraz remains McLaren and distinctive conditions that have made Vale’s standard-bearer. James Halliday the name Coonawarra synonymous with calls it one of the “ancestral homes” of truly great Cabernet Sauvignon. Shiraz in Australia. The Barossa Valley and Clare Valley are among the others. As James Halliday, Australia’s most The Clare Valley is actually even This unique heritage positioned influential wine writer, notes in his better known as prime Riesling country. South Australia to guide and inspire definitive Australian Wine Companion, This inland region at the base of the the growth of a mature and sophisticated “in South Australia, Coonawarra stands Mt Lofty Ranges endures warm to hot wine industry into the second half of the supreme, its climate … strikingly similar summers, but cooling afternoon breezes 20th century. to that of Bordeaux”. The result is “perfectly detailed Cabernets”. help slow the ripening process. This As high-quality wines emerged to allows for elegant, finely structured establish the reputation of regions like The maritime influence is even more Rieslings that are respected worldwide. the Clare Valley and the world-renowned pronounced, though less uniform, in the James Halliday notes that for well Coonawarra, a hub of industry leadership McLaren Vale, where the sweeping vistas over 100 years the Clare Valley and was developing in South Australia, take in a mix of rolling vineyards and nearby Eden Valley “stood above creating what can only be described as rugged coastal scenery. all others” in Australia for premium Australia’s “Wine HQ”. Riesling. They remain the benchmark. The Australian Grape and Wine Authority – the Government body that regulates and promotes Australia’s wine and sets the industry’s research priorities – is based in Adelaide, as are the organisations that represent the nation’s winemakers and grape growers, and a critical mass of both research power and whole-of-wine supply chain wine education, encompassing viticulture, oenology, wine marketing and wine business. Wine’s future thinking begins in South Australia, and there are significant rewards. Wine contributes more than $2 billion to the South Australian economy, second only to mining. South Australian wine is exported to more than 100 countries. The South Australian Wine Story 03 The Eden Valley is sometimes were planted as early as 1839. This is The quiet achiever is Langhorne Creek, referred to as the “cool climate one of the very few regions in Australia rated by many good judges as among the Barossa”, and its greater altitude allows to produce truly great Sauvignon Blanc best regions in Australia for Cabernet winemakers to produce premium – wines with structure and authority Sauvignon. After all, it’s where Wolf Blass white wines (Chardonnay as well as that can only be created in the right sourced the grapes that helped him win Riesling) alongside the Shiraz that is conditions by winemakers with a real feel Australia’s highest profile wine award, the the hallmark of its immediate and for the variety.