A look at the McLaren Vale

In Australia, the world’s driest inhabitable continent, the availability of water defines what you can grow, what you can’t grow and, importantly, how you should grow. In the 1990s, the winemakers of McLaren Vale had yet to learn that lesson.

Together with local farmers, notably the region’s almond growers, they were slowly draining the region’s underground aquifers by over-watering their crops to increase yields. It led to a worrying decline in the water table which, in turn, increased salinity. Something had to be done.

In the mid-90s, limits of 1.5 mega litres per hectare were imposed on vineyards. In the late 90s, it was reduced further to 1.1 mega litres.

“All of a sudden we were really limited in water,” says Dudley Brown of Inkwell Wines. “Effectively we had to learn how to adapt to climate change 20 years ago, because we couldn’t have more water if we wanted it. It turned out to be this incredible blessing. We had to think differently.”

In 1999, water-saving measures went further, with the launch of a recycled water initiative to effectively drought-proof the area’s vineyards. Today, more than 50% of the water used on vineyards in the region is now recycled. A Sustainable Australia Winegrowing program created with the assistance of academic and viticultural consultant Dr Irina Santiago-Brown of Inkwell Wines was adopted in the region in the early 2000s. The program, a first in the country, set benchmarks for growers to work to towards a more measurable, sustainable footprint. It has now been adopted nationally.

Inside the Vale

McLaren Vale is one of the closest wine regions to Adelaide, capital of South Australia.

This has proven to be a mixed blessing. Encroaching suburbs over the decades have taken land where vines once stood, including the state’s oldest commercial vineyard, The Stony Hill vineyard at Old Reynella. Believed to have been planted in 1838-9, it was sold by Constellation Wines to a property developer in 2009.

However, proximity to a vibrant capital city just 40km down the road has escalated winery tourism and has been behind the creation of a vibrant food and wine scene, together with the construction of more and more sophisticated wineries geared to tourists--such as d’Arenberg’s A$15m ($10.6m), five-storey, art-filled ‘Cube’ with restaurant which floats on a sea of Mourvedre vines and attracts more than 130,000 visitors annually.

With 7,300ha under vine, the Vale is not just a leader in sustainable wine production but also one of the success stories in the search for grape varieties better suited to a changing climate.

Red grapes were always important to the region but now dominate plantings. Shiraz is number one with 4,117ha planted or 56% of all plantings, followed by Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache. Chardonnay, the strongest white grape, comes in at number four with 330ha, but is in decline.

In the 1990s, Chardonnay was the most expensive wine grape in McLaren Vale with huge demand from wineries. In 2000, it represented 25% of the annual McLaren Vale crush; today it is just 5%. In its place there has been a corresponding rise in plantings of Fiano and other white grapes like Vermentino. “Everybody has realised that the key to whites in a warm region like ours, is to work with ones that a) don’t need a lot of water, b) maintain high natural acidity,” says Corrina Wright, chief winemaker and co-owner at Oliver’s Taranga Vineyards. “It’s a bonus if they need less management in terms of sprays, and an even bigger bonus if the flavours and styles work well with our Mediterranean climate. Fiano hits all of these with spades.”

Other grapes such as Vermentino, Tempranillo, and Nero d’Avola are also doing particularly well, while Portuguese varieties that were once used for fortified wine production, which dominated wine growing in McLaren Vale in the 1960s, are now being re-imagined as table wines. In Australia, these are called “alternative” grape varieties.

Stephen Pannell at S.C. Pannell Wines was a winemaker at Hardys Wines in the late 1990s when he saw the potential for grapes such as Touriga Nacional and Tempranillo. By the time he struck out on his own in 2004 with S. C. Pannell Wines he was almost certain of it. Then came the 2008 vintage. “It was the hottest and most difficult vintage I have ever experienced,” he remembers, “with 17 days in a row over 37C in the middle of vintage. I witnessed Shiraz with 26 degrees potential alcohol. This was also the first vintage I made Touriga for table wines which ripened beautifully at 13.5, despite the weather.” He said it made him think they were growing the wrong grape varieties.

Stephen Pannell is now a leader in alternative grape varieties with wines such as Montepulciano, Nebbiolo, Shiraz/Touriga, Tempranillo/Touriga, Nero d’Avola and Fiano. He’s also excited by the potential of indigenous Greek grape varieties and Italy’s Nerello Mascalese and Falanghina. More recently, Pannell came across Grk when visiting Croatia. “I was struck by how great the wine was, and how stupid I’ve been in not searching it out earlier and understanding how diverse and complex the world of wine is outside of France.”

Evolution of styles

Under a new generation of winemakers, even the classic styles are evolving. Where once the region’s powerhouse red grape, Shiraz, was robust and muscular built around high alcohol and lashings of new oak, today it’s more refined and interesting with nuance and elegance.

Producers look to source fruit from higher, cooler sites such as the Seaview Ridge in the area’s north. Day temperatures in these spots are not all that different to other areas of the Vale, but the cooler nights bring extended ripening times reducing the race for higher sugars.

The region is categorised as warm and relies on prevailing afternoon breezes from the nearby Gulf St. Vincent to moderate temperatures which assist in maintaining acid vibrancy in grapes like Shiraz and Grenache.

Justin McNamee at Samuel’s Gorge, who arrived in the Vale from the Yarra Valley in 2003, is one maker looking to higher altitudes to source fruit. “I would like to believe that our Shiraz has aromatic influence from the surrounding botanicals,” he says. “Our vineyards are mainly in sedimentary sands and shale with a ferric influence. Our wines tend to therefore have fresh mulberry, blackcurrant fruit with clove, pepperberry spice range.” The spicy hot and aromatic pepperberry is an Australian native bush and a much-prized botanical in Australian gins.

Organic and biodynamic winegrowing and making is on the rise too. “There has gradually been a move away from herbicides, pesticides and there are now a lot of organic and biodynamic vineyards in McLaren Vale,” says Chester Osborn, chief winemaker at d’Arenberg. “We at d’Arenberg are proudly the largest biodynamic grower in Australia with over 450 acres (182ha). McLaren Vale is the largest organic growing region in Australia, by a long way.”
This, he adds, has led to a greater expression of the geology of individual vineyard sites. “The terroir expresses itself more prominently because of this.”

Some of the area’s rock formations date back 650 million years. Understanding what is below the soil, like water and different geologies – there are at least five – will hopefully prepare McLaren Vale winemakers for a future in which temperatures are expected to reach 1.5 degrees of climate change or more.

“From where I sit the region has always been an underachiever, but is now being recognised as a leader, especially with consideration to water and sustainability,” says Mike Brown, managing director, and chief winemaker at Gemtree Wines.

The Australian wine industry will need that kind of leadership in the years ahead.