The Adelaide Hills
The Adelaide Hills Wine Region
The Adelaide Hills Wine Region is located in close proximity to Adelaide. It is a cool climate area including a broad range of microclimates and soil types. Early ripening grape varieties such as Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay are perfectly suited to all areas of the region. Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Shiraz are better suited to warmer areas of the Adelaide Hills.
Grapes grown in the coolest, highest areas such as Mount Lofty and Lenswood tend to higher acidity levels, giving very elegant wines with subtle flavours.
The relatively warmer, but still decidedly cool areas, including Eastern sections of the Onkaparinga Valley provide wines of greater fruit flavour and structure.
Inclusion of other variables such as the aspect of the vineyard, soil type and clonal varieties of the vines means that individual vineyard characteristics provide exciting taste variations for the wine maker and consumer to enjoy. With such variations, one can only talk in general terms on wine styles from the Adelaide Hills.
Chardonnay is at its best, probably because of the excellent fruit and acid balances in all areas. Subtle elegant examples from the coolest parts range through to the more Burgundian styles of the more temperate parts.
Pinot Noir is likewise well suited, and provides flavoursome wines from all areas. Harnessing this level of flavour is the key to these wines and as the vines mature we will see great wines emerging. The Bordeaux varieties can suffer from green characters caused by the under ripe fruit in the very marginal areas, however extremely elegant and flavoursome wines can be sourced from most areas of the Adelaide Hills.
Likewise, Shiraz can produce excellent wines with good ripening in the warmer parts of the Adelaide Hills; the style tends to Rhone style wines rather than those of the Barossa Valley. The coolness of the Hills areas also ensures the Sauvignon Blanc will always be a predominant variety with the full range of styles emerging from asparagus to fruit salad flavour sensations, based on the fruit source and winemaker's influence.
Winemaking in the Adelaide Hills
The superb quality of Chardonnay in the Adelaide Hills makes white wine making relatively easy. The depth of fruit characters easily takes new oak and the inclusion of all the results of straight crushing and pressing and frequent lees stirring followed by milk fining prior to bottling.
Pinot Noir should be renamed "bete noir" and it is no wonder that winemakers see it as the search for the "holy grail". Each year sees different fruit characters and a tasting of a cross section of pinots from all areas will show as many different styles of wines in the relative infant Adelaide Hills Wine Region with its many microclimates there will be much fine tuning in the next 200 years. Pinot will never be mastered , as it never has been any where else in the world, but I am working towards a mutual respect with the variety as have the masters in Vosne Romanee, learning how the beast will react to winemaking techniques. Adelaide Hills will prove to be an excellent pinot region, probably when the abundance of fruit flavours evident in its Chardonnays is controlled to give the refined elegance and subilties of the great pinot noirs.