Tasting Team on Tour: Mike Bennie visits the Clare Valley

Clare Valley was originally planted in the 1840s by the English journeyman John Horrocks. Following Horrocks, the Jesuit priest Father Kranewitter settled into the area, planted vines and built a winery on his property, Sevenhill. The Sevenhill winery may have been the first in Clare Valley, but with the advent of a gold mining boom, and more ambitious families settling in the area, more vineyards and wineries came about, and the wine region proper began its emergence. 

There were nearly 600 hectares of land under vine by the end of the 19th century, and the development of the wine community continued through the early 1900s. The 1950s, '60s and '70s saw more enhancement of Clare wineries and a distinct turn to the boutique and famed names of the region plying their trade, with Taylor (Taylors), Barry (Jim Barry) and Brady (Wendouree) rising up through this period. 

The early 1980s saw a bearded ‘hipster’ set up a winery in an old shed with second hand equipment and ambitious winemaking applied. While the image might echo that of today’s avant garde set, Jeffrey Grosset had benchmark wine plans for his fledgling winery, and having applied his keen mind to honing the regional styles, particularly riesling, a torchbearer emerged. 

Jeffrey Grosset. Image courtesy of Wine Australia.

The '80s, '90s and '00s have seen nationally recognised wine names in lights alongside Grosset’s, with Mount Horrocks, Pikes and Tim Adams stars of the 1980s, Kilikanoon hitting the limelight in the late '90s, and O’Leary Walker, Adelina and Wines by KT gracing wine lists since the '00s. Most of all the following have paved their way through iterations of riesling. Riesling in Clare certainly draws the gaze. 

State of play 

So iconic is the riesling of Clare Valley that it’s hard not to be myopic in conversations about the region. Surprisingly, it’s not the most planted grape variety in Clare, with shiraz (and cabernet!) plantings more prominent. Regardless, it’s the high tensile, acid driven, dry rieslings of the region that are ubiquitous. Indeed, Clare riesling arguably commands attention nationally, and globally, for iconic status and individual styling, at the apex of all Australian wine styles. 

The breadth of Clare riesling is relatively narrow, however, despite the distinctions of parishes and subregional nuance. When at its best, Clare riesling is transcendent and detailed, offering a cornucopia of citrus, mineral, stone fruit, herb and spice with textural nuance, sense of precision and extraordinary length. 

The topflight producers of the region seem to eke out this complexity by more or less following a ritual path in winemaking, with stainless steel, cold fermentation, judicious fining and filtration bywords of that process. 

Riesling vineyard at Mount Horrocks. Image courtesy of Wine Australia.

The scheme for winemaking seems to have become near omnipresent, with a sense that producers with access to vineyards of more modest pedigree are employing basic winemaking that leaves many wines diffuse in character, aggressively acidic and often with unresolved yeast floral characters not gelling in the wine. 

The 2022 releases are universally at a very high standard, indeed, at equal measure to best vintages of the past two to three decades. Top wines are memorable, drink with charm in youth (though you need an enthusiasm for acidity!) and should cellar prodigiously. More modest producers have released wines with easy charm from this stellar 2022 growing season. 

Red wines continue in their bold and bolshy way, with heft and concentration the mainstay of shiraz, cabernet and blends using both, though many wines feel retrofitted with acid, oak and tannin as the juggle of water (drought) and heat (earlier harvests) issues manifest. 

Shiraz from 2020 and 2021 feels hefty. Cabernet similarly styled and iterations of blends follow suite. Best examples manage the balance of alcohol, tannin, ripeness and winemaking edifice/oak seasoning. Tastings seem to suggest that flavour in recent vintages is coming on earlier, requiring more judicious picking decisions and perhaps a small side step in thinking about what Clare’s inherent red wine styles set out to achieve. 

Clare Valley. Image courtesy of Wine Australia.

Alas, many looking at the numbers in the lab seem to need to correct with acid and tannin at sometimes prodigious levels, undermining quality of fruit and higher potential of red wines. Breathy, higher alcohol in some reds, not integrated into the body of wines, is also a quibble that repeats at times. Of interest is emergence of gentler grenache, nouveau styles and more medium-bodied/lower oak influence reds that seem more palatable in youth and appealing in a modern oeuvre. 

Likewise notable from the region is the quiet rise of lesser sung varieties. While making up a very small portion of the region (some 80 per cent is set aside to riesling, shiraz and cabernet), pinot gris, malbec, semillon, grenache, tempranillo, sangiovese, mataro and fiano show promise. 

Most of these varieties seem to see winemakers pin back the winemaking edifice and opt for wines that are less forced, with lees contact, wild ferments, skin contact, and eschewing filtering and fining a more common approach, rendering interesting, progressive wine styles. The quieter wines find a welcome place amongst the canons of Clare’s traditional wines. 

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