Adelaide Area Wines
Your Wine Tours Guide May 28th, 2007
The Adelaide Hills is one of Australia’s most charming wine-growing regions. Whether your favored Adelaide area wine tours are commercially operated or of your own creation, you will experience a region that is not only beautiful but is also a prime agricultural area. The Adelaide Hills form the eastern boundary of the city of Adelaide and are part of the Mount Lofty Ranges.
If you go on an Adelaide wine tour you can visit wineries in the Barossa and Eden Valleys in the north or wineries on the edges of McLaren Vale and Langhorne Creek in the south. All of these areas are the producers of a large amount of wine, in fact, the Adelaide Hills wine region is one of South Australia’s largest wine regions, as well as the oldest, and perhaps the best known, in the United States.
For the wine-touring enthusiast, it is important to note that the grapes grown in this region are earlier ripening varieties. Planning for Adelaide area wine tours must, therefore, take into account that the general harvest in this area is earlier than in some other wine-growing areas in Australia. For those leaving for Adelaide area wine tours from the Northern Hemisphere, it is important to note that Australian seasons are reversed; June is winter in Australia, December is high summer.
A final note on history: in 1844 Queen Victoria was presented with a case of wine from the first vines that were planted in the Hills in 1839. There are now over fifty wineries, most of which provide a tasting room and many of which are accessible to Adelaide area wine tours.
Winery Touring
Over the past few years a major highway has been built to make the region more accessible and to promote the growth of Adelaide area wine tours. It is now only a twenty-minute drive to Mount Lofty from Adelaide and it is also often 5ºC cooler in the Adelaide Hills than in the surrounding areas. Because Australian summers are known for their extreme heat, the moderate weather in the Adelaide Hills continues to drive the tourist industry, as well as enticing the wine enthusiasts pursuing Adelaide area wine tours.
The cool climate of the Adelaide Hills is great for almost all of the popular varieties of grape including Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay and other major varietals. Adelaide area wine tours expose the enthusiast to some of the finest wines in the world.
There are other attributes of Adelaide area wine tours that are worthy to mention. This area has the feel of an old English countryside and features award-winning restaurants, boutique hotels and bed-and-breakfasts, as well as all of the wineries. In the middle of the Adelaide Hills there is also the rather unique town of German origin called Hahndorf. For the wine enthusiasts, Adelaide area wine tours must include this little town where the smell of gingerbread pervades the soul and mingles in a unique fashion with the flavor of the grapes. This type of town, though, is not quite unique to Australia, and can also be found in the Hill Country region of Texas. The town of Fredricksburg owes its origins to German settlers and is also at the center of a major winery region.
