The southern vales town of McLaren Vale was opened up by settlers who planted their first vines in 1838, just two years after the colony of South Australia was founded. In 1861 Dr Alexander Kelly, one of South Australia’s first doctors, persuaded seven of Adelaide’s wealthiest establishment figures to buy vineyards in McLaren Vale. They named the property Tintara and began producing a big, dark, burgundy style wine, which was the style most popular at the time.But the man acclaimed as the father of the South Australian wine industry and in particular of McLaren Vale is Thomas Hardy. He bought Tintara when the business failed in 1876, found markets for the cellars full of wine, and set about with his enormous energy and enterprise, planting better varieties of vines.Following Hardy’s example, investment in vineyards abounded. Ryecroft was established in 1884, Tatachilla in 1887, Amery in 1891, Pirramimma, Katunga and The Wattles in 1892, and Wirra Wirra in 1893.These wineries continued to make heavy, dry table wines in the style that was required by the bulk wine merchants and exporters at that time. Indeed, it was not uncommon for some of these wineries to export their entire output.By the turn of the century, the local market softened and there was a shift towards making fortified wines.Between 1920 and 1930, exports trebled and finally, after World War II, local sales picked up. But unfortunately for McLaren Vale as a wine region, the wine was sold in bulk, losing its identity in the blends mostly bottled elsewhere in Australia.All this changed during the 1950s when wineries like Seaview, d’Arenberg and Tatachilla began bottling small parcels of selected wines and established tastings and cellar door sales. Then in 1952, when there were only nine wineries in McLaren Vale, interest in table wines finally rose, and in the 60s and 70s the region began to stir.By 1979, 26 new wineries were established in McLaren Vale. And given the region was founded on port and heavy burgundian styles of wines, it wasn’t surprising that many wineries began to specialise in distinctive shiraz, cabernet and blends of the two.Finally over the last decade, white wines have come into a realm of their own in McLaren Vale, Chardonnay being first planted in the region in 1975 by Richard Hamilton.Today there are around 50 wineries in the area and McLaren Vale is basking in the limelight at last, not only locally and interstate, but very much so in the USA and European markets as well.
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