Clare Valley

The Clare Valley is a series of narrow valleys at around four hundred metres, cool enough at night to make riesling of a style that has become the Australian benchmark: dry, taut and long-lived, from producers including Grosset, Pikes and Kilikanoon, alongside firm shiraz and cabernet. Jesuit priests planted vines at Sevenhill in 1851 to make sacramental wine, and the winery there still operates, the oldest in the valley, with its church and crypt open to visitors. The Riesling Trail runs about thirty-five kilometres along a disused railway from Auburn to Barinia, flat and sealed, linking cellar doors and villages and making bicycles a practical way to taste.

History

The Ngadjuri people are the valley's first inhabitants, with major camping places at Clare and Auburn, and John Hill, the first European known to explore it, came in early April 1839 and named the Hutt River. His report of good farmland reached Edward John Eyre and through him John Horrocks, who settled with his servant John Green at what is now Penwortham, the first permanent settlement; Edward Burton Gleeson's Inchiquin run of 1840 grew into Clare, Jesuits settled at Sevenhill in 1848, and settlers from England, Ireland, Poland and Silesia planted vineyards beside their villages. The Ash Wednesday fires of 16 February 1983 burned more than 6,100 hectares and damaged the railway, whose route became the Riesling Trail (Wikipedia, Clare Valley).

What you'll find

• The riesling cellar doors - small producers making the Australian benchmark style.
• Sevenhill - the 1851 Jesuit winery, church and crypt.
• The Riesling Trail - a thirty-five-kilometre rail trail through the vines.
• The stone villages - Mintaro, Auburn and Sevenhill in local slate and stone.

When to go

March to May and September to November; summer days are hot though nights stay cool. The Gourmet Weekend in May is the main event. Many cellar doors close by 5pm and some open only Friday to Sunday.

Things to know

The valley is spread over thirty kilometres and needs a car or bicycle. Tasting fees are now common. Accommodation is limited and books out on event weekends. Summer heat makes cycling the trail hard going.

Nearby

Mintaro and Martindale Hall lie east; Burra, a preserved copper town, is north.