Clare Valley Wines

Most winemakers blend away their Grenache with other red grapes, usually Shiraz. While this has proven to be a great recipe, Kilikanoon winemaker Kevin Mitchell believes that pure Grenache can be a great red wine – that’s why he’s bestowed this red with a regal moniker. His formula is simple, yet rare, as he only uses the best fruit from low yielding ancient vines. This sun loving grape needs plenty of warmth to fully ripen, so he also picks it late when it’s full of flavour. This brooding wine’s cherry and chocolate flavours are so fine that it can convert a republican to a royalist, or a Shiraz fiend to a Grenache lover.

Many a wine connoisseur has said “you can’t beat Clare Shiraz” and many more believe Clare Shiraz to be the drink of the gods. Wise words from an oracle can influence a wine lover to expand their boundaries and look for new tasting experiences, which is a good thing. The 2007 Kilikanoon Oracle Shiraz is also a good thing that pushes the boundaries of Clare Valley reds. Its cherry, licorice and mocha flavours are guaranteed to take your palate closer to heaven.

Chances are if you’ve ever traveled to the historic Clare Valley then you would have heard of winemaker Tim Adams. He’s one of our favourite boutique winemakers and has a knack with every grape style. This Cabernet sees the addition of Malbec to lend complexity. Cabernet does well in the Clare Valley and has produced excellent examples over the years. It’s lively with blackcurrant and spice as well as notes of violets. 24 Months in oak has lent developed characters to this full-bodied style that would go well with lamb dishes.

Named after the patriarch of the family Edgar Walter Pike who was a grape grower on this Clare Valley Estate since the 60’s this wine honours the traditions of the Pikes forebears. Essential regional expression here, with plum, ripe blackberry, spice,hints of coffee and chocolate providing alluring aromas. A powerful palate with black fruits, chocolate and charry oak before silky tannins and natural acids keep it all focused. It ends with impressive persistence and will happily last in the cellar for the next two decades.

The Aberfeldy has become a bit of a cult collectors wine. It comes from a single site in the Clare Valley from vines that were planted in 1904. What winemaker Tim Adams is able to do with this fruit is incredible as he coaxes enormous flavour from the grapes and creates a Shiraz that highlights the region. This is rich and hearty with lashings of plum, dark chocolate and mixed berries. It’s a full-bodied palate that delivers fruit power in perfect harmony with tannin and acids. A wonderful wine to open with a selection of mature cheeses.

If you thought Tim Adam’s Estate Riesling was smart, you wait till you try the reserve because this is as pure an expression of Clare Valley Riesling as you could hope to find. It’s perfumed with vivid, lime, lemon and grapefruit and the fruits in acid are in excellent balance. It’s the classic style that will benefit from a few extra years in the cellar and you’ll still find it’s fresh with a lemon acid core and honeyed characters.

Tim Adams is a Clare Valley institution and his wines are superb expressions of the region. The wines are lovingly crafted in an artisan manner showing Tim’s talent for sourcing the perfect fruit. Turn on the hotplate and sizzle some steaks for this full-bodied gem as it surges across the palate with a swathe of rich, berried fruit. The texture is driven by firm tannins, that carry fruit intensity and a long, spicy finish. This is the kind of red that you just want to sit and drink well after your plates have been cleared.

Grenache is normally associated with the Barossa or McLaren Vale but winemaking maverick Tim Adams was stuck for Cabernet and Shiraz grapes back in 1993 and bought this fruit of a neighbour. The rest is history. The wine was such a success it became a permanent fixture. It’s full bodied but perfect with food, expect to find vibrant berries on the palate with notes of spice. It’s got a hardy tannin structure and would lend itself to a number of meat-based dishes, particularly duck or lamb.

Piccadilly in the title of this wine refers to the site in the Adelaide Hills where winemaking supreme Jeffrey Grosset sources his fruit for this elegant and finessed Chardonnay. This is all about restraint. It’s lean and tight and a little bit shy. Give it time though and it will shine with aromas of peach and nectarine and then deliver great texture and a zesty, cleansing acidity. It’s beautifully integrated with oak and ends with some slate like minerality. It’s begging to be served with a rich, decadent lobster dish with a cheese sauce.

The Jesuit priests of Sevenhill realised there was more to just making sacramental wines and wanted to share their talents with an audience greater than just the church going public. Some of the earliest plantings in the Clare Valley comprised, Cabernet, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Merlot because Sevenhill knew that Cabernet when blended could be responsible for miracles. The St, Ignatious is one such miracle with its aromas of sweet berry fruit that continue onto the plush palate while complemented by Malbec spice. It’s complex and firm with lovely tannin weight, leading to a lingering finish.

We love half bottles and are saddened you don’t so many anymore, perfect size to share with a loved one on a picnic or better still keep the whole lot to yourself and savour the flavour. This cheeky little Riesling from the Clare Valley comes from 40-year-old vines that produce fruit of real purity. Multi-awarded and lauded by a host of win critics, this wine shows a core of lime and grapefruit but it’s the structure that’s the key, it has balance, depth, line and length.

This is the business. Clare Valley Riesling that is so indicative off the region and the soils influence. We know you’ve heard it from us before, but Riesling is such an easy drinking white that we don’t understand why it’s not more popular. This is made with fruit sourced from the famed Ackland single vineyard that has given knappstein some memorable wines over the decades. It’s vibrant with lime, apple and musk before a palate of lemon and textured minerals. It finishes with great intensity and length of flavour suggesting a match of some fresh seafood would be the best option.

Forget what you know about Semillon Sauvignon Blends as Jeffrey Grosset has crafted an absolute beauty made with Clare Valley Semillon and Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc. This wine is often referred to by those in the wine trade as one of the country’s very best examples of the style. We can’t disagree because the aromas are so attractive with an amazing fruit profile of tangerine and nectarine. The flavours on the palate reveal guava, grapefruit and lime all held in place by a taut structure. Intense in the glass, this wine just gets better and better and the zesty acids make it an excellent choice with Asian based dishes.

As far as Australian Riesling goes there’s one name that stands tall as the supreme wizard of the grape; that man is Jeffrey Grosset. For over 30 vintages he has been crafting pure and pristine examples from single vineyard sites in the Clare Valley. The wine is characterized by its restraint and fruit purity. It’s imbued with lemon and lime aromatics that make it tangy, tight and tantalizing. It’s powerful with quartz like minerality and layer after layer of flavour. It’s impeccably balanced with a satisfying grip on the finish. This is oyster territory.

Mount Horrocks has long been the quiet achiever, one of those boutique Clare Valley wineries that has for years fastidiously produced hand-crafted wines that have given them an enviable reputation. This Riesling is as pure an expression as you could hope to find, with vital lime and blossom aromas before a fresh and arresting palate of zesty citrus. It’s got a nicely mineral aspect before a dry finish and clean, crisp acid.

Pikes Clare Valley Riesling is a national icon and one of the most consistent whites from the Clare Valley. So you can only imagine how good their reserve Riesling is. Yes this is the Rolls Royce of Rieslings with all the bells and whistles thrown at it. The wine is made from the best grapes of the vintage sourced from the Polish River. It’s delicately fragrant with lemon, lime and grapefruit as well as a slatey mineral expression. It’s a subtle palate with lemon and lime enveloping a mineral core with a superb acid structure as well as an enticing texture. This will happily last for a decade or more.

Wine making is in the blood for Tom and Sam Barry whose family is responsible for the famous Jim Barry label from the Clare Valley. This is the younger generation of the Barry family spinning their own interpretations of the classic grape styles of the region. The Cemetery Block might sound a bit gory but it’s the name given to the patch of dirt where the Shiraz is sourced close to the local cemetery. Great Clare Valley styling with plum and chocolate aromas supplemented by seductive spice. Black fruits flood the palate with hints of coffee grounds and a firm tannin framework.

Though the Clare Valley is renowned for Shiraz and Cabernet there’s a fair bit of Grenache too. The fruit for this wine was grown biodynamically and was planted back in 1975, the vineyard produces low yields of full-flavoured grapes. It’s got a dreamy nose of raspberries and blueberries and delivers a decadent and textured palate of berries. Drink it with demonstrative cuts of meat or cellar it for a few years.

Gaia is the word for Mother Earth it’s also the name of Jeffrey Grosset’s superb Cabernet blend which is certainly a creation of Mother Earth at her best. It’s Bordeaux in style with the blend divided between Cabernet Sauvignon, Cab Franc and Merlot. The site is well maintained with the fruit hand picked then matured in French Oak. It’s fragrant with brambly fruit and cedar and powerfully concentrated before a classic Cabernet palate and very structure tannins on the finish. A superb wine that will cellar well in to the next decade.

If you are a Star Trek fan you might just love this wine because it’s named the Enterprise. In just one sip it will teleport you to the Clare Valley and allow you to experience a Cabernet that’s out of this world. This is powerful stuff, a nose of cassis and violet with a hint of chocolate and eucalypt. Rich blackberry coats the palate before cedary oak and fine tannins fill out the finish. This is polished and profoundly good Cabernet that could only be improved with a little air and being matched with lamb steaks.