Adelaide is one of the major centres for winemaking in Australia, with the Barossa Valley, Coonawarra and Adelaide Hills established for many years.
Some of the up-and-coming spots include Limestone Coast, Eden Valley and Clare Valley.
On our second day-trip out of Adelaide, we visited the McLaren Vale area, touching a couple of new (to us) wineries and others that are better known.
All of these wines are available in Edmonton: the D’Arenberg and Fox Creek more widely stocked.
Our first trip was to the Hugo Wines establishment, one of the boutique wineries in the area. These people established their vineyards some 50 years ago, and, as their altitude is somewhat higher than the Barossa, they featured grenache and cabernet sauvignon in reds: sauvignon blanc and chardonnay in whites. We sampled the unwooded and wooded chardonnays, which are lighter but very fruity and probably should be drunk earlier. Feature at the winery was the grenache, which came off very well. Lots of fruit, nice tannins and some staying power. The cabernet sauvignon was dark ruby in colour, a bit floral on the palate but quite complex. Again fine for early drinking.
After Hugo, our next stop was Foggo, which James Halliday places among the five-star wineries in McLaren Vale. Again, Grenache was the star. Foggo features some of the oldest vines in McLaren Vale. The Grenache was from older bush vines, which is a feature we saw on several vineyards in the area. These vines were planted in 1925, and was matured in American and French oak for 12 months. The palate is nice soft fruit and great length.
Foggo’s old vine shiraz and cabernet sauvignon also are from old vines – the shiraz planted in 1915 and the cab in the 1950s.
We liked both of these, along with their Hubertus Reserve Shiraz, and look forward to tracking them down when we return home.
Then it was on to a stop at D’Arenberg, where one could taste about 20-plus wines if you have the stamina!
We really liked the Lucky Lizard Chardonnay, a real keeper.
Among the standbys, we tried Footbolt Shiraz, Sticks and Stones Tempranillo-Grenache-Souzao: The Galvo Garage Cab Sauv-Merlot-Petit Verdot – Cab Franc: the Laughing Magpie Shiraz-Viognier: and, finally the great 2003 Dead Arm Shiraz.
These are all super wines, and, for the money, the best value seemed to be the Galvo Garage and the Laughing Magpie.
In the afternoon, we visited Fox Creek, Wirra Wirra, Kay Bros Amery and Coriole
The tastings that stood out for us included the 2003 Church Block blend at Wirra Wirra; the 2003 Woodhenge McLaren Vale Shiraz, and, again, a Grenache – the 2003 McLaren Vale, all at Wirra Wirra.
A specialty at Wirra Wirra was the Mrs. Wigley Rose, great for hot-weather sipping.
Their outstanding wine was the 2003 RSW Shiraz which looks to develop well over the next decade.
We enjoyed the Short Row Shiraz at Fox Creek but didn’t get to taste their reserves as they were just coming out.
At Yarra, we unfortunately travelled on Australia Day (very busy) and there were some bush fires around, causing power outages at some wineries.
The two most notable spots we stopped were at Yering Station and Coldstream Hills
Yering Station is a five-star rated winery (by Halliday) Their top wines included the 2004 Shiraz Viognier, a fine Cabernet Sauvignon and an excellent Pinot Gris. This was one of the few places we visited that produced Pinot Gris, and the wine was excellent.
Coldstream Hills was started by James Halliday, and it reflects his high standards. Top wines there include great chardonnay, the best Pinot Noir I have tasted outside of Burgundy, a limited release shiraz which has all the characteristics of a fine Rhone (including the barnyardy nose) and they are now producing a top Merlot Reserve
These wines are not easy to find in Canada, are brought in by Southcorp, but if we can find some we will be adding these to our wine cellar.
If you want to ask about specific wines, check with our two industry members – Cristalls and Devines to get more info.
I’ll report again later in March, with tasting notes on what we try while here on the Sunshine Coast
Marty Larson