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| The view from the hills |
Over the last month I’ve been living and working in
the beautiful wine region of McLaren Vale. The Vale sits
35km south of the city of Adelaide in South
Australia and is, at first-hand experience, remarkably similar to
the Languedoc-Roussillon region of Mediterranean France. It has a dry warm summer, a mild winter
with rains of 580-700mm per year followed by a fresh spring giving much-loved
distinct seasons, feels like home!
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| The Gulf of St Vincent |
The wine region itself is
encompassed by the Mount Lofty range and Adelaide Hills. It’s bounded to the south
by the Sellicks Hill Range and Piggots Range in the north curves round to
create a horse shoe shape channelling the Mclaren Flats towards the west to the
Gulf of St Vincent where you will find some of South Australia’s most
picturesque and spectacular beaches such as Port Willunga.
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| Port Willunga |
The
region rarely experiences frost or drought due to this close proximity to the
sea, with the cool South Easterly wind moderating the potentially and sometimes
deceivingly hot daytime temperatures.
The
very first settlers to the region arrived in late 1839 and there is some
dispute as to who Mclaren Vale was actually named after. The two main contenders
would be either David
McLaren, the Colonial Manager of the South Australia Company , John McLaren who surveyed
the area in 1839 or the wild card, Philbo Baggins. Tony Laithwaite eventually
arrived in the 1990’s.
John
Reynell and Thomas Hardy were apparently the first to plant grape
vines in 1838 and the Seaview and Hardy wineries were in operation as early
as 1850 and are still here today. Some of the oldest vines in the world at more
than 100 years old can be found here. And although the yields are tiny they
still produce amazing wines today, much like my own loved region of Roussillon
back home in France.
The rich diversity of wine
produced here in the Vale is a marriage of the winemakers and the red-brown
earths of terra rossa, rendzina, soft sands and dark cracking
clays. It is a complex maze of sub regions, soils and micro climates. I am
fortunate to have lived a vintage harvest here and seen some slight insight and
understanding into the wines from Mclaren vale and I am stunned by all it
offers, does and potentially can deliver.
The grape varieties grown in the Vale
consist of the usual culprits but these ‘normally-caged-to-European-legislation-jail-bird’
varieties often have greater a freedom here in the Vale. There are however the classic Italian
varietals which bizarrely are still called emerging varietals even after 25
years and are now being grown seriously here reflecting heritage, history,
food, passion and of course; coolness.
The
big players are present in the Vale but the majority are small family-run
operations and boutique wineries. And my word, what great wines you can get for
decent bucks!
Every
region has its identity but I feel at home in the Vale, just like back in the
Roussillon. A free winemaking state surrounded by confusion and
regulations.
I
can see why Tony fell in love with the area. Blending options, a winemaker’s, a
wine-lover’s and a wine-drinker’s paradise.
Although
now today I have noticed that in all this freedom it seems even the Vale are
creating an ‘appellation’ system. They’re beginning to recognise areas like the
sublime sandy soil of Blewitt Springs; the low hills of ironstone,
chalky rock and clay loam of the Vale; the Seaview region of red earth clay on
limestone, sand, marly limestone and grey loam on clay; the Willunga escarpment
of Gilgai and Sellicks Foothill’s thin red loam soil.
The
rigid appearance of the Penfolds Grange label is still the fore runner of
ultimate blending and thorn into Euorpe’s finest side? Why? Answer: The Best Blend.
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