There’s glorious gold in the Hills at the moment, the colour of many ash trees now almost gone, punctuated by vibrant crimsons and clarets lining laneways and vineyard rows.
Deep into the Piccadilly Valley at the Tapanappa winery, one of the region’s most important vineyard sites, the Chardonnay vines are shining yellow ochre, sending colour clues about the delicious wines they produce via the winery and cellar door just metres away.
This is the birthplace of Chardonnay in the modern era of the Adelaide Hills Wine Region and those vines tell the history of the variety that has become its superhero.
Brian Croser chose this gully to plant Chardonnay in the late 1970s because he thought it would be suitable for high quality wine.
“That question was answered pretty quickly,” Brian says now, looking back over its 40 plus year evolution.
“It certainly produces Chardonnay in a unique varietal style and intensity,” he adds, noting he is referring particularly to the Piccadilly Valley’s place in the region as a source of fine Chardonnay wine.
Soon after those vines began to make good, the region started to spread outward to its 90km length north to south and 30km eastward, revealing two stand-out subregions for cool climate wine styles in Piccadilly and Lenswood and detailed by countless gullies, slopes and hillsides with different altitudes, aspects, soils and sunshine hours that provided for an extraordinary diversity of growing conditions and resulting wine qualities.
Chardonnay has been the beneficiary of all those regional elements.
It’s the right variety in the right place, in broad terms, and, even better, it can reflect individual vineyards sites as well as showcase the work of a winemaker, whether they wish their fingerprints to be light or more impactful.
Croser concentrates purely on one area to create his Chardonnay and has evolved his own winemaking to highlight the class of the fruit from the Tiers Vineyard into an internationally recognised elite style.
It’s all about protecting the pure fruit characters of the variety, prioritising those rather than adding artefacts of too much oak or other “Burgundian” elements that in the past were thought to be complementary to Chardonnay.
“Over time it dawned on me that we were masking the wine more than adding to it,” Brian says.
“The more we allowed the Chardonnay fruit to shine through, the better the wine – that’s where I am today.”
It’s precisely this mode of thinking that has promoted Adelaide Hills Chardonnay to its current hero status.
It’s unique, often in flavour profile and also the shape and texture of the wine, according to Shaw+Smith winemaker Adam Wadewitz.
“There’s a strong imprint from the Hills and, like all places that are really strong with a particular variety, if you delve into the intricacies of the specific areas where it grows well – sometimes they can be really small plots – then you just really unlock some uniqueness,” Adam says.
While Shaw+Smith makes a high-end, single-vineyard wine from its own Lenswood vineyard, it is its M3 Chardonnay that has become a regional benchmark, bringing together fruit from several districts into one wine that reflects what is a much-lauded, recognisably Hills expression of the variety.
“It has mid-palate weight without becoming too heavy or overblown and, if you choose the right sites, then you get beautiful acidity that can work together with the wine’s density and flavour,” he says.
“That’s a unique trait in Hills Chardonnay. You want to highlight what comes naturally from the vineyards.”
This recognition of individuality and diversity also is embraced by a new generation of Hills-based winemakers, bringing further recognition to the region from younger and increasingly adventurous consumers.
Candice Helbig and Frewin Ries, of CRFT Wines, make two Chardonnays, one from Forreston and their own estate Arranmore Vineyard, their own tiny vineyard in Carey Gully.
They pick their fruit and craft their wine to showcase its natural acidity and brightness of fruit – and while they design their wines to have texture and some oak richness, it’s the vineyard that remains the star.
“I think people are falling back in love with Chardonnay in a modern style and it’s to do with the fruit and minerality and acidity of the wine,” Candice says.
“The Hills can really provide that modern style, naturally, because of the cool climate, because of all the different aspects and all the variations they offer.
“Essentially, that modern Chardonnay style is a natural fit for the Hills.”
Another new generation winemaker garnering attention for his Chardonnays is Gareth Belton at Gentle Folk Wines, who makes a “village” blend from three vineyards in Charleston, Oakbank and Lenswood, as well as three individual variations from Ashton, Piccadilly and a Carey Gully vineyard called “Scary Gully”.
“The whole idea as a Chardonnay maker is to make something as pure as possible,” Gareth says.
“Chardonnay is great because it shows the vineyard – all the little pockets in the Hills we have – and the person at the same time.
“You can see both.
“That’s the cool thing about the variety.
“Chardonnay in the Hills is probably the best thing we do in terms of world scale.
“You can show it to anyone on planet earth – good Hills Chardonnay – and everyone is going to love it.
“We should be very proud about it.”
