Fun trip to McLaren Vale this weekend for a day of touring and tasting. The vines are laden with fruit right now and a few cellar doors were down to the dregs pre harvest but vintage ’22 is just round the corner here in Aus and I’m looking forward to seeing what’s in store!
McLaren Vale is a beautiful region with plenty to offer, read more in region research here. There are some fab restaurants if you want to enjoy a lazy lunch including The Salopian Inn who love seasonal, fresh produce…’an eclectic, edible story’ and with the 30km coastline there are some stunning beaches to sober up on after a few tipples too.
However, this trip we focused on four wineries I’d been recommended…
Coriole
First up was Coriole – a family-run estate in a beautiful location established in 1967. An 1860s ironstone cottage houses the cellar door with gorgeous surrounding gardens. Coriole is a pioneer of Italian varieties including Sangiovese, Fiano, Nero d’Avola and Barbera. However, their standard-bearer is the Lloyd Reserve Shiraz, a powerful, chocolatey red made from the oldest vines on the property planted in 1919. Unfortunately, Coriole had sold out of a lot of their best stuff and the restaurant was booked for a large party which was taking up much of the attention of the staff. It is, however, a beautiful spot and we took away a bottle of their Fiano and Nero d’Avola to try at home (not on tasting due to limited availability…) I’d like to go back for lunch to enjoy the setting, I’ll also try to avoid a weekend next time in the hope we’ll get a bit more love and attention from the team.
Kay Brothers
The Kay family history dates back to 1890 and this vineyard is proudly traditional with very old vines at the heart of the experience. It’s the oldest winery in McLaren Vale and has one of the best cellar door locations with views from the hilltop. Reds and fortified wines are their strongpoint and they offer a range of tastings depending on what you’re in the mood for. Amongst the four of us we each managed to choose a different version just to keep things interesting – hats off to Tristan who took on the fortifieds at 11:45am! Their flagship Shiraz is the Block 6 which is a concentrated wine from vines over 120 years old. But it was the Hillside Shiraz that impressed us, a slightly more approachable version with delicious blackberry, plum, cedar and soft licorice notes. We drank (and purchased) the 2018 vintage and took home a few 2008s too…looking forward to the side-by-side tasting to come!
Chalk Hill Wines
For lunch we ventured to Chalk Hill wines mostly enticed by the promise of wood-fired pizzas from their Italian enoteca. Sadly I think the rest of Adelaide had had the same idea, and the wasps too! The food was good but we would have loved the option of indoor seating with aircon. Their wine tasting experience encouraged you to taste the wines blind and guess based on handy clues of aromas – a bit of fun, and perhaps sensible given the staff/ to customer ratio…we weren’t quite sure how long our wines had sat there prior to our arrival though. Maybe that explained why the wasps were so happy?
S.C.Pannell
Stephen Pannell made his name as chief red winemaker at Hardys McLaren Vale and has set up his own shop with wife, Fiona. The brand is only 14 years old but is already very highly regarded. They source grapes from across South Australia but are increasingly honing in on McLaren as their home – Italian and Mediterranean varieties are their specialty, including one of Australia’s best Nebbiolos.
The cellar door is relaxed, the staff were super knowledgeable and the wines were brilliant. They have three brands – Koomilya, SC Pannell and Protero – and an eclectic array of wine label art to match. Kudos to their take on 2021…
We tried a whole host of wines but the Mediterranean varietals were the real standout – the Nebbiolo certainly lived up to the rave reviews and the Cabernet/ Touriga (a Portuguese grape variety) blend was delicious.
2 Comments
Comments are closed.