McLaren Vale
South Australia
Winemaking
McLaren Vale's unique location, with a warm Mediterranean climate cooled by the Southern Ocean, is the foundation for Songlines. Combine this with the area's diversity of quality viticultural soils, altitudes and aspects, and you have Shiraz fruit with amazing depth of intensity and purity of fruit.
The quality of the fruit is also a direct reflection of the pride and experience in producing premium grapes of several dedicated McLaren Vale vignerons.
It was the Songlines' team respect for these vignerons and their sites that led them to believe that McLaren Vale Shiraz can rival that of any of the top wines produced any where in the world.
The vineyards are unirrigated and all yields are below 2 tonnes to the acre, and in the case of Sand Road and Willunga Road, less than 1.5 tonnes per acre. All blocks are pruned by hand and all picking is done by hand.
David Fatches' intimate knowledge of the growers and their vineyards is essential and he visits at least once a month during the year and every week during vintage. Careful organisation during harvest allows them to pick not vineyards but rows or even vine by vine to ensure optimum harvest time for all fruit.
Travel Notes
McLaren Vale is situated 40 kilometres (only a half hours drive) south of Adelaide, on the Fleurieu peninsula. It lies in rolling countryside bounded by a series of low hills to the east, Gulf St. Vincent to the west, and to the south by the Southern Ocean.
Whilst its neatly terraced hillsides—with their vineyards, orchards and sea views—and its temperate climate have led to it being labelled Mediterranean, the resemblance is superficial at best, for its seasons are back to front, the sky overhead is the pale blue peculiar to Australia, and its landscape is populated by a range of flora and fauna utterly different to those that surround the ancient centre of the Earth.
The area has been settled for at least 30,000 years. Its original inhabitants were the Kaurna tribe, hunter gatherers who flourished on the excellent seafood that abounds in the placid waters of Gulf St. Vincent, which they called 'Wongayerio', meaning 'overwhelming water where the sun sinks', and on seal meat from the pinniped colonies on the swell battered ocean coast. Their first contact with Europeans came in 1802 when Captain Flinders of the Royal Navy dropped anchor in Encounter Bay.
The township of McLaren Vale is central to this region, with Reynella and Clarendon to the North, Kangarilla on the Eastern Boundary, Aldinga on the coastal edge to the West, and in the South, Mount Compass and Sellicks Hill.
The principal attractions of the area are natural, and include wonderful ocean vistas, and the opportunity to admire some of the most curious, and dangerous, creatures on the planet.
The Sea & Vines Festival during the Queen's Birthday long weekend sees over fifty cellar doors add food and music to create a party atmosphere, attracting over 30,000 revellers to the district on each of the days.
With around ninety wineries, sumptuous food, and beautiful sea and mountain vistas surrounding it all, McLaren Vale has a lot to offer the visitor. Over a hundred accommodation places of varying styles, and more sunny days than not, this region welcomes the true hedonist.
Good winter rainfall (580-700mm) and low relative humidity ensure consistency of ripening and premium quality fruit. Frost is rare, as is rain before vintage. Long dry summers through to late autumn, with a mean January temperature of 21.7ºC and 1920 heat degree days, means McLaren Vale is considered one of the safest wine growing regions in Australia. Harvest time is early March to late April.
