Head for the Hills and discover one of Australia’s most exciting cool-climate wine regions.
It's not like South Australia needed another world-class wine region, but the Adelaide Hills has gone and become one anyway. The wine region has quickly blossomed into one of Australia’s most exciting, fostering a reputation for high-quality and innovative winemaking practices. And unlike its famous cousins – the Barossa and McLaren Vale – the Adelaide Hills specialises in cool-climate wines.
Less than a 30-minute drive east of Adelaide, the Hills is a long, narrow wine region that stretches from Barossa to its north and down to McLaren Vale. As the name suggests, the landscape is characterised by rolling hills with a variety of different aspects and soil types. This diverse geography means winegrowers can produce a wide range of varieties and styles, including some grapes you might not have heard of (um, gewürztra-who?). The region has blazed a trail when it comes to the natural winemaking movement, too.
While those newer grapes get us seriously excited, rest assured the classics you know and love are still an important part of the Adelaide Hills offering. Pinot noir, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay and sparkling wines are the flagships here, made by exceptionally talented winemakers who are supported by tight-knit local communities. The region may be relatively small, but when it comes to food, wine and landscapes, there's no doubt the Hills can compete with the best of them.
Elevation – 230–650m
Total vine area – 3,957ha
Average annual yield (grapes crushed) – 25,000 tonnes
Soil – Brown loam with patches of sandy soils over clay
Climate – Cool, moderately maritime climate with wet winters
Mean temp (Jan) – 20.4°c
Average growing season rainfall – 268mm
White grapes – 60%
Red grapes – 40%
1. Sauvignon blanc – 30%
2. Chardonnay – 25%
3. Pinot noir – 20%
4. Pinot gris / pinot grigio – 9%
5. Shiraz – 5%
Adelaide Hills is still a fairly young wine region, but its history as a distinguished winegrowing area actually dates back almost 200 years. In 1843, a case of wine made from Adelaide Hills’ first vineyard was sent to Queen Victoria. This was the first gift of Australian wine to an English monarch ‒ pretty fancy, hey?
When you sip on wines from this region, you’re drinking wines with altitude. Adelaide Hills is one of the most elevated wine regions in Australia, with some vineyards at altitudes of 700 metres above sea level. This helps contribute to its cool climate, which, despite its more northerly latitude, is similar to that of Tasmania and parts of northern Victoria.
At the heart of the region is the quaint village of Hahndorf, Australia’s oldest-surviving German settlement. Today, this adorable village hub boasts amazing art galleries, kitschy-quaint cafes and foodie hotspots, including a number of venues specialising in traditional Bavarian cuisine. And by that, we of course mean hot salted pretzels, refreshing steins of weissbier and sausages the size of your arm.
- The Hills produces some of Australia’s best sparkling wines. Made using the same traditional method as Champagne (oooh-la-la) these wines show classic red apple and citrus flavours along with a lovely complex, yeasty character that comes from ageing in bottle.
