Adelaide Hills White Wine
Just 20 minutes’ drive from the centre of Adelaide you find yourself in the Adelaide Hills. The ascent from the city is 700 metres, making this a cool climate wine region boasting a range of award-winning white wines. The Adelaide Hills is one of the largest geographical wine regions in Australia, and amongst the most diverse in terms of climate, soil and topography.
The folds and undulations of the Adelaide Hills create a wide range of mesoclimates. In seeking and exploiting these climatic differences, the vineyards tend to be small in area and often steep. Hand pruning and picking is often a necessity as well as a choice.
This diversity plays host to a range of grape varieties and white wine styles. In the coolest areas, the classic Chardonnay the ever popular Sauvignon Blanc and the hard to say but easy to drink Grüner Veltliner.
Adelaide Hills is one of the largest geographic wine growing regions in Australia, there are over 90 wine labels and 48 cellar doors to choose from. Click here to discover some of the best Adelaide hills wineries and cellar doors
Adelaide Hills Chardonnay
This cool region is highly suited to Chardonnay. The Adelaide Hills is leading the way in new style Chardonnay’s which are are elegant, textured and lean but which have the acid structure to age and evolve. These bright and stylish white wines challenge the traditional assumptions about Chardonnay and rival the very best, with their fruit intensity and complexity. Part of what makes the Hills a special region for Chardonnay is the diversity of producers and styles. With plantings at a range of altitudes, up to about 600m, they’re producing thrilling Chardonnays with beguiling natural acidity, flavour and intensity. Young guns and older hands are mixing it up together, experimenting, collaborating, recognising good dirt, respecting the fruit and creating engaging brands and stories for the drinker.
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Adelaide Hills Sauvignon Blanc
Sauvignon Blanc is so great a few reasons, it’s light, bright typically clean with distinctive fruit flavours of citrus, pink grapefruit and slight tropical aromas when done well. The perfect easy drinking wine easily understood.
The Adelaide Hills is the best place to grow Sauvignon Blanc due to our high altitude vineyards. Sauvignon Blanc is most delicate and pretty when grown around 450m above sea level. In the hills, this means the cool nights lock in great natural acidity and the warm days give lovely slow ripening conditions, all making our fruit vibrant and fresh.
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Adelaide Hills Grüner Veltliner
Grüner Veltliner is a real newcomer to the Australian scene, but its unique style has quickly made an impression on wine lovers around the country. Austria’s signature grape, Grüner Veltliner thrives in vineyards growing above that country’s famed Danube River. It has found a home away from home here in Australia, most notably in the Adelaide Hills. Fans of Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc find much to love in this white varietal. The first local Grüner Veltliner was released in 2009 by Canberra’s Lark Hill Winery, with the second from Handhorf Hill in the Adelaide Hills the following year. Since then, Adelaide Hills has become a signature region for the variety with around 30 labels in production, though it thrives in any cool climate environment. Adelaide Hills’ mean January Temperature of 19.2oC ensure it maintains its natural acidity and intense fruit aromas.”
Fresher styles suit many salad and vegetable-based dishes, while the full-bodied, textural styles are great with richer dishes like poultry, salmon and even schnitzel. Grüner’s acidity and spiciness also pairs well with Thai, Vietnamese and Japanese f
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