Regional profile: McLaren Vale, South Australia
This famous South Australian wine region, more than any in the country, has succeeded in balancing tradition and innovation, says Sarah Ahmed, who picks out 10 producers to watch and her top wines to try
Standing five storeys high, with dynamically offset angular faces (like a Rubik’s Cube mid-twist), the d’Arenberg Cube in McLaren Vale is winemaker Chester Osborn’s paean to the complexities and puzzles of winemaking.
It could just as well be Osborn’s tribute to this South Australian region. Like the Cube, its unique jigsaw of more than 40 geologies and growing panoply of grape varieties (37 at last count at d’Arenberg alone) are radically refreshing ‘brand McLaren Vale’.
McLaren Vale was first surveyed for European settlement by John McLaren in 1839. And it wasn’t long before English settlers, notably James Reynell and Thomas Hardy, found a ready market back in their homeland for wine. These strapping red table wine and fortified blends were based on Grenache, Mataro (Mourvèdre) and Shiraz.
During the export-fuelled, table-winefocused planting boom of the 1970s and ’80s,
The five-level d’Arenberg Cube offers tasting and blending experiences, a restaurant and fine art
Shiraz toppled sugar-rich Grenache from its perch, becoming Australia’s most planted grape.
The 1980s and ’90s saw the launch of cult Shirazes showcasing McLaren Vale’s rich, velvety fruit. These include Kay Brothers’ Amery Block 6, d’Arenberg’s The Dead Arm and Clarendon Hills’ Astralis.
Following contemporary tastes, fruit shines more brightly as wines go into bottle earlier. There’s increased focus on savouriness, spice, or, with reduced extraction, ‘intensity, but without unbalanced muscularity’, as Emmanuelle Bekkers puts it.
Today, Shiraz accounts for more than half of McLaren Vale’s plantings, with Grenache now just 6%. With Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Chardonnay, these grapes account for 90% of McLaren Vale’s vineyard area. However, more than any other classic, premium-oriented Australian region, McLaren Vale succeeds in making excellent wines rooted in tradition, while cultivating new strengths.