A D E L a I D E Hills Wine
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO ADELAIDE HILLS WINE This cool-climate region has spearheaded the evolution of Australian wine. Read on to find out more. CONTENTS – The history of Adelaide Hills – Geography, climate and soil – Viticulture and winemaking – Prominent varieties Cover: Charlotte Hardy, Charlotte Dalton Wines, Adelaide Hills AUSTRALIA NORTHERN TERRITORY QUEENSLAND WESTERN AUSTRALIA SOUTH AUSTRALIA NEW SOUTH WALES VICTORIA ADELAIDE SOUTH S 0 500 NEW SOUTH WALES AUSTRALIAKilometres TASMANIA ADELAIDE Adelaide Hi s VICTORIA The ultimate guide to Adelaide Hills wine ADELAIDE HILLS: COOL‑CLIMATE ELEGANCE AND INNOVATION The wine region has rapidly become one of Australia’s most exciting, fostering a creative community and spearheading the evolution of Australian wine. - Varied landscape home to one of South Australia’s coolest-climate regions - Hub of quality and innovation in wine production - Elegance the common thread across a diverse range of wines - Tourist hotspot on Adelaide’s doorstep ADELAIDE HILLS: COOL‑CLIMATE ELEGANCE AND INNOVATION Among the cool, leafy peaks and slopes of the Adelaide Hills wine region, passionate producers craft premium cool-climate wines renowned for their elegance and vibrant flavours. Although the modern-day wine community only began here in the 1970s, the region has rapidly become one of the country’s most important, spearheading the evolution of Australian wine in recent years. Today, Adelaide Hills is home to established and iconic names in wine as well as an exciting new generation of experimental winemakers carving their own paths and setting trends. The ultimate guide to Adelaide Hills wine Cool-climate haven From elegant to edgy Just minutes from Adelaide, in the hills Adelaide Hills winemakers produce diverse to the city’s east, Adelaide Hills is one wine styles ranging from delicate traditional of the coolest-climate wine regions in method sparkling wines to spicy Shiraz. South Australia. Its diverse landscape is a Cool-climate stalwarts Chardonnay and patchwork of peaks and valleys, bushland, Pinot Noir shine bright, while Sauvignon farms and vineyards, where some of Blanc sets the benchmark in Australia. Australia’s best-quality grapes are produced. Alternative varieties also thrive in the Relatively high altitude and ample rainfall region’s varied soils. The common thread make this a lush retreat from the heat of across all Adelaide Hills wines is natural much of South Australia. acidity and elegance. Hub of quality and innovation Tourist hotspot on Adelaide’s doorstep Adelaide Hills is home to a forward-thinking Settled by German immigrants in the 1800s, wine community, in which grapegrowers Adelaide Hills’ central town of Hahndorf is and winemakers work together to produce Australia’s oldest-surviving German settlement. a diverse range of premium cool-climate This village hub boasts amazing art galleries wines. Established producers craft classic and foodie hotspots, and is a pathway to styles while creative makers experiment with the region’s vibrant cellar doors, less than a varieties and techniques to make this one of 30-minute drive from Adelaide’s CBD. Australia’s most exciting wine regions. The ultimate guide to Adelaide Hills wine THE HISTORY 1900–1960s OF ADELAIDE HILLS: Financial pressures and lack of viticulture experience means all vineyards are removed by the 1930s. CONTEMPORARY For the next 40 years, the land is COOL REBORN used for other purposes. 1840s–1900 First commercial vines planted by John Barton Hack. Other vineyards soon follow, and from 1840 to 1900 there are more than 200 growers and winemakers in the region. 1970s and 1980s TO DAY Adelaide Hills has a reputation for Adelaide Hills is reborn as a wine premium wines, becoming one of region when Leigh and Jan Verrall Australia’s most important cool-climate plant a vineyard in 1971. Brian Croser wine-growing areas. Wine styles range founds Petaluma in 1976 and the from elegant to edgy, which helps modern-day region is born. define modern Australian wine. 1998 The Geographical Indication (GI) Adelaide Hills is created. The ultimate guide to Adelaide Hills wine THE HISTORY OF ADELAIDE HILLS: 1998 CONTEMPORARY COOL REBORN The Geographical Indication (GI) Adelaide In the beginning Hills was created, located within the Mount The traditional custodians of the Adelaide Lofty Ranges zone. It stretches around 75 Hills are the Peramangk people. Some areas kilometres (46.6 miles) from Mount Pleasant were shared with the neighbouring Kaurna in the north to Macclesfield in the south. people of the Adelaide Plains, especially Today after Europeans arrived. In the years since it was established as In the 1830s, South Australia was settled a wine region, Adelaide Hills has grown by Europeans as a free ‘non-convict’ steadily and has rapidly built a reputation colony. Farmers, artisans and business for its elegant, premium wines. Cool-climate people established villages in the hills, wines have exploded in popularity in which reminded them of home in the Australia in recent years, and Adelaide Hills United Kingdom. By 1839, German and has become one of the country’s most Silesian emigrants were also arriving, important cool-climate wine-growing areas. and they founded European-style villages. Today it is home to more than 90 wine 1840s–1900 labels and a collaborative wine community The earliest record of commercial vineyard encompassing established icons, traditional plantings was in 1840 by John Barton Hack, producers in pursuit of perfection and a who most likely planted Shiraz or Grenache. younger generation of creative makers Other vineyards soon followed, and from at the forefront of alternative winemaking 1840 to 1900 there were more than 200 trends. grapegrowers and wine producers in While still a young wine region, Adelaide the region. Hills has played a vital part in the evolution 1900–1960s of Australian wine and is itself constantly Due to financial pressures and lack of cool- evolving. Emerging varieties are thriving and climate viticulture experience, vineyards wine styles ranging from elegant to edgy are slowly disappeared from the early 1900s, helping to define modern Australian wine. and by the 1930s they had all been removed. For the next 40 years, the land was used for other purposes, including cattle and sheep farming. DID YOU KNOW 1970s and 1980s The Adelaide Hills was reborn as a wine In 1843, a case of wine made from region when Leigh and Jan Verrall planted Adelaide Hills’ first vineyard was a vineyard in 1971 and a new group of wine sent to Queen Victoria. This was pioneers emerged. Brian Croser founded the first gift of Australian wine to the renowned Petaluma winery in 1976 after an English monarch. identifying the area as one of the best in Australia to grow varieties suited to cool climates, and the region as we know it today was born. Brian was soon followed by other wine-producing trailblazers, including Stephen George, Geoff Weaver, Tim Knappstein, Stephen and Prue Henschke, and Michael Hill Smith MW and Martin Shaw. The ultimate guide to Adelaide Hills wine GEOGRAPHY, CLIMATE AND SOIL - Long, narrow region less than a 30-minute drive east of Adelaide - One of South Australia’s coolest-climate wine regions - Diverse topography creates mesoclimates and microclimates - Two subregions: Lenswood and Piccadilly Valley GEOGRAPHY, CLIMATE AND SOIL: Within this diverse region, there are two COOL‑CLIMATE HAVEN IN THE HILLS subregions – Lenswood and Piccadilly Less than a 30-minute drive east of Adelaide Valley – identified for their rare soils and in South Australia, Adelaide Hills is a long distinctive climates. and narrow wine region that stretches from the Barossa to its north down to McLaren Vale. It’s a lush and leafy retreat, home to picturesque orchards and farmland, hillside vineyards and bushland spiked with towering gums. Sandwiched between some of Australia’s most famous warm-climate regions, the Adelaide Hills has a distinctly cool climate thanks to its elevation. Roads twist and turn through the undulating landscape, DID YOU KNOW the steep hills and valleys creating an Adelaide Hills is one of the coolest array of mesoclimates and microclimates. and most elevated wine regions The region’s altitude and cool conditions in Australia, with a climate help produce grapes bursting with flavour similar to Tasmania and parts and varietal character, whilst retaining good of northern Victoria. natural acidity. The ultimate guide to Adelaide Hills wine VERY HIGH CLIMATE >1000M >3280FT HIGH 750–999M 2460–3279FT MODERATE MARITIME WITH COOL-CLIMATE CHARACTERISTICS MEDIUM 500–749M 1640–2459FT ADELAIDEALTITUDE HILLS LOW 230–650M (755–2133FT) 0–499M 0–1639FT Latitude Altitude – 34° 98’S Adelaide Hills has low to medium altitude. Climate As elevation increases, the temperature – Adelaide Hills is a cool-climate, moderately drops. This is vital at night in the final maritime region with cold winters and stages of ripening, with colour and flavour winter-dominant rainfall. compounds boosted by cool conditions. – Its undulating terrain creates a range of Growing season rainfall (GSR) mesoclimates and microclimates, which – 268mm (10.5in) make the region well suited to producing a Calculated from October to April in Australia, diverse range of premium wines. GSR is a good indication of how much water – Due to the cool climate, most of the is available to the vine. Adelaide Hills receives region is best suited to early-ripening relatively low levels of rain during its growing varieties. However, some west-facing season. However, rainfall varies throughout slopes in the north are warm enough to the region, increasing at higher elevations ripen Cabernet Sauvignon. and mainly falling in winter and spring. A large proportion of the region is fortunate enough to have robust underground water supplies, with water quality ranging from ‘spring water’ in the Mount Lofty area to generally drinkable water throughout the rest of the region. The ultimate guide to Adelaide Hills wine Mean January temperature (MJT) – 20.4°C (68.7°F) DID YOU KNOW Mean January temperature refers to the mean Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc temperature of the warmest month.