South Australia - McLaren Vale Wine Region

lorisolan
Nov 30, 2017
4 min read

After living in Melbourne for six years, it never dawned on us to visit Adelaide. Why would it, I mean the one hour plane ride is just too far!! It was only after we left the country and came back one year later for our friends wedding that we were able to experience it. We had four days to explore and we loved every second. I was most looking forward to visiting the wine regions as we had heard South Australia produces some of the best in the world.

We landed at Adelaide airport at 7am, got our car, dropped our bags in the apartment and hit the road towards McLaren Vale, one of the most famous wine regions. McLaren Vale is just under an hours drive south of Adelaide centre and is home to approx. 80 cellar doors and 160 vineyards best known for their Shiraz, Grenache and Cabernet wines.

Adelaide to McLaren Vale Map

Hugh Hamilton Winery (94 McMurtrie Rd)

Our first stop was the Hugh Hamilton winery. On the drive down, it was really cloudy but they broke to reveal the sun just as we pulled up the Hugh Hamilton drive. The cellar door is beautiful with lots of greenery on an around the building. We were greeted by a German lady called Sabine, who was extremely welcoming and led us to a table where we could take in the stunning views of the vineyards with a backdrop of the arid looking hills. For $20AUD we were given a tasting of six of the recommended Hugh Hamilton wines which were accompanied by a small cheese platter.

Sabine had lots of interesting information on the individual wines, the owner Hugh and the vineyard itself. The tasting took approximately one hour as it was spaced out so you could fully enjoy the experience. The wines that we tasted ranged from $25 - $70 and had catchy names such as "The Scoundrel, The Rascal, The Scallywag". We left with a $32.50 bottle of Black Ops Shiraz that was our favourite.

Chapel Hill Winery (Chapel Hill Rd & Chaffeys Rd)

Next up was Chapel Hill located just a 10 minute drive from Hugh Hamilton. This cellar door is found inside a beautiful old chapel that was built and opened in the 1800's. It served as a chapel, school and a social gathering place for the locals and was officially closed in 1965. It was reworked and reopened in the 1970's and that is where the Chapel Hill wine story began. We had a tasting of their red wine selection since that is what we tend to drink. While the selection and variations of wine was interesting, the wine was quite dry for me so we left empty handed.

Coriole Winery (Chaffeys Rd)

Coriole is a minute's drive from Chapel Hill. This was the busiest cellar door so far and we witnessed a man order 120 bottles of their various wines (HAPPY CHRISTMAS to him) so I was very much looking forward to the tasting. Again they tailored the tasting to our red wine enjoyment and I really liked the 2014 Sangiovese which I had to buy on the way out. This is originally an Italian grape and the conditions in McLaren Vale are extremely agreeable for growth therefore alot of the wineries use this grape mainly as part of a blend.

The grounds around Coriole are pretty with alot of greenery and colourful flowers on display. If we had of been hungry at this stage, I would have liked to have visited their restaurant which seemed extremely popular. It is only open from Thursday - Monday 12-2.30pm and they do recommend bookings before the day.

Samuel's Gorge Winery (193 Chaffeys Road, Lot 10 Chaffeys Road)

Just right next door to Chapel Hill was Samuel's Gorge which was our last stop of the day. This was my favourite winery out of the four we visited for a handful of reasons - the view was incredible, the guy who worked there was super friendly, the wines were all delicious, we had the whole place to ourselves, I was fairly tipsy at this stage and we had the added bonus of a short walk to the amazing gorge. There was nothing not to like about this winery. As we were the only people there, the guy (wish I got his name) was totally relaxed and put the Shiraz bottle in front of us and let us pour our own measure. I would love to come back here again just to spend the whole afternoon sitting out and enjoying the chilled atmosphere.

On a side note, if it is 36 degrees like it was for us, maybe don't go down to the Gorge right in the middle of the afternoon. If you still decide to despite this friendly warning, bring plenty of water, oh and wear appropriate shoes, something I did not have the luxury of. Even though it is a short walk there are some inclines that makes for a very sweaty excursion. Totally worth the view though.