Adelaide can’t help being a world beacon for wine. It has wine regions that lay on its doorstep in every direction but the ocean. It is fitting that the one side that is not teeming with world class vineyards, is the waters of the aptly named Gulf of St Vincent, known as a Patron Saint of Wine.
The area has it all. Phenomenal wines, a grand wine heritage, a long established food culture, beautiful landscapes, some of the oldest vines in the world, great diversity, abundance and proximity.
Within a day it would be possible to set off by car and visit four diverse world class wine regions, and still have time for a lunch, kangaroo sightseeing and a visit to the beach.
Penfolds, Jacobs Creek, Torbreck, Henschke, Yalumba, D’Arenberg, Wolf Blass, Peter Lehmann and Hardys. These are local wine names that have been established through quality and a rich heritage. They are however, just a few names amongst the 400+ wineries all based within a 150km radius of the CBD of Adelaide.
It has its own champion variety: Shiraz. Wines from the famous grape variety grown in the Barossa, Mclaren Vale, Clare Valley and Adelaide Hills are up there as the best in the world. The greater region is, however, far from a one trick pony.
Over the 150 years of establishing the vine in South Australia, the wine producers have worked without archaic regulations or preconceptions limiting their possibilities. They have learnt the climate and the land, and what works well where, and how to make quality wines people want. The result is a huge diversity in the range of wines and styles available, with a clear line of quality throughout. The top wines are amongst the greatest in the world, the commercial wines amongst the best value for money anywhere.
A mix of colonial history, isolation and clever quarantine laws mean the area has never been affected by the great vine devastator: Phyloxera bug. The area is home to some of the oldest Shiraz, Cabernet, Semillon, Malbec, Mourvedre and Grenache vines anywhere in existence.
They produce wines of amazing quality, consistently. How do we know this? Because they would have been long removed and replaced if they didn’t. They have formed a symbiosis with their sites to perform over time, putting them up there with any of the great name vineyard sites in the world.
The exceptional wine culture is only possible with a preeminent food culture and Adelaide and its surrounds is a great provider. In fact, you would not need to leave the state to get access to some of the freshest fruit and vegetables, meats, seafood, cheeses, breads, butchers, coffee roasters and dairy in the world. The menus of the restaurants in and around Adelaide thrive as a result.
Adelaide has the wines, the names, the produce, the stories, the vines, the sites, the food, the climate, and the sea. It offers an abundance of diversity, all in close proximity. In a nutshell, Adelaide has everything you could ever dream of as a Wine Capital of the World.
- WINEDUCATION - 