The Coonawarra area produces excellent wine. Photo / Supplied
The Coonawarra area produces excellent wine. Photo / Supplied
David Leggat visited the wine regions of South Australia for a spot of glug-glugging.
South Australia tends to get overlooked when people talk about favourite Australian states. In this humble opinion, so wrong. The big cities of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria tend to hold sway. However, the state along the bottom of the country has plenty to commend it. Maybe it's because the inhabitants are descendants of settlers as opposed to the striped pyjama stock of their northern neighbours, but there's much to enjoy about a few days tootling around a state which has a distinctly relaxed feel about it.
Certainly, Adelaide lacks the frenetic bustle of Sydney, the slightly superior feel of Melbourne and the stickiness of Brisbane. But it is part of a state, after all, responsible for more wine production than any other.
So let's focus on one of its nicest areas, McLaren Vale, just outside Adelaide.
But first, a half-day drive south from the city (or a slightly longer drive up from Melbourne) takes us to Coonawarra and a spot of glug-glugging.
Penola, just south of Coonawarra and wine-growing heartland of the state, is an otherwise nondescript little town, but a source of pilgrimage for Catholics as the home of Mary MacKillop, the first Australian to gain sainthood.
For wine lovers, there is a pilgrimage of a different sort back north along the Riddoch Highway, which is dotted with 28 wineries.
We drove kilometres through rolling fields covered entirely by grapevines, as far as the eye could see.
If boutique is your thing, Katnook Estate is worth a visit. The vineyard manager, Chris Brodie, is a New Zealander and happy to talk soil and grapes with a genuine love for his work.
There's a large pit near the entrance to the winery, which vividly shows the top-soil layer formed by the celebrated local terra rossa. (people had told us to watch out for the point where the soil suddenly changed colour from dull brown to distinctive red; we thought they were exaggerating; they weren't). This thin strip of land around Coonawarra is especially fertile and famous in the industry for its suitability for producing world-class red wine.
Just down the road is winemaking on a different scale at Wynns, the big daddy of the wineries.
Here you get your chance to make your own wine, kind of. You are given three long beakers of wine (a shiraz, a merlot and a cabernet sauvignon) and a white lab coat and asked to make a blend as close as possible to one of Wynns' black label award-winning wines.
By use of pipettes and taste testing, you try to match the real thing (clue: the cabernet sauvignon comprised a touch over 50 per cent of the award-winner). It's good fun, but not to be tried before driving.
The writer 'makes wine' at Wynns. Photo / David Leggat
Wynns has four different fermenting systems, is spread over about 800ha, crushes 4000 tonnes of fruit and hosts 20,000 visitors a year. It dwarfs the rest of the wineries but there's a collaborative feel about the region, a kind of all-in-this-together vibe.
Onwards north to McLaren Vale, via the picture-perfect town of Strathalbyn, with its 30 heritage-listed buildings. To get there, cross the Murray River by rustic free ferry at Wellington.
The drive is slightly off the beaten track and all the more pleasant for it.
McLaren Vale has one odd claim to fame to these eyes - one of the most interesting tourist centres they've come across.
We spent a night in luxury at the Vineyard McLaren Vale, nestled in hectares of grapes. Highly recommended.
There we met Chook, born in the Waikato but a long-time resident of the region, who runs winery tours. Chook had a neat take on the difference between the more celebrated Barossa wine region and McLaren Vale.
The former is all business, he said, the latter more about camaraderie and friendship. It sounds slightly corny but we knew what he meant. After all, no one wants to see the rivals down the road have a bad season; it could be their turn next.
There are more wineries of distinction, from the essentially standard operations to others like Samuel's Gorge, which operates out of an old blacksmith's stables.
Winemaker Justin McNamee's dreadlocks stand him out as a different type of artisan, but, again the passion is unmistakable.
Just down the road you'll find Lloyd Brothers Wine & Olive Company, a pleasant setting and where one lighthearted slogan read "a balanced diet is a glass of wine in each hand".
Don't fly through McLaren Vale. There's plenty to justify a few days taking in the region at a relaxed pace.
Getting there: Qantas flies from Auckland to Adelaide, via Sydney or Melbourne. McLaren Vale is 45 minutes from Adelaide, and Coonawarra about four hours.
