Red wines don’t have to wrestle you to the ground.
The Adelaide Hills region is at the forefront of a new era of more elegant expressions that suit our modern lifestyles.
Fashions come and go in the way we enjoy a wine over dinner, or hanging out with friends under the trees at a friendly local cellar door.
In the Adelaide Hills we have seen it with whites, from the rise of Sauvignon Blanc that now has spread to the popularity of Pinot Gris (and its sibling Grigio).
Meanwhile the enduring celebrity status of Chardonnay has had its own trendline move from ripe and oaky to a fresher, more vibrant style, which has propelled the region’s reputation with the variety into global recognition.
With red wines, the Adelaide Hills’ cooler climate has encouraged growers and winemakers for more than four decades to focus on Pinot Noir, which thrives better in such conditions than warmer regions like the Barossa and McLaren Vale where Shiraz is king.
But Shiraz also loves the Hills and delivers a different style of wine to its more traditionally accepted homes. Here it tends to express characters in a different berry spectrum, less overtly ripe, red to blue fruits rather than jammy and black.
Spice notes can be varied as well, with a peppery nuance that arises in cooler climate growing conditions.
And generally less oak barrel influence as well, a more general winemaking trend in the past decade across most regions.
While the Adelaide Hills has found a natural affinity with these styles of medium-bodied red wines, so too has there been a consumer lean towards them. People are turning more and more towards lighter and more refreshing red wines.
Consumer and trade reports all confirm this is not only the way of the future, but the here and now.
Do you find yourself smack bang in the middle of both these lifestyle swings?
Loving both the natural expression of the Adelaide Hills to produce the kinds of wines that suit its geography and climate, and at the same time finding your wine drinking preferences are for lighter, brighter, fresher.
The coalescence of both regional and social inclinations creates an exciting moment in the sun for the Adelaide Hills.
We do have some history in this arena, the region, and one district in particular, Basket Range, being the epicentre of the so-called Natural Wine Movement that a decade ago shook up the entrenched pillars of Australia’s traditional wine industry.
A good deal of the wines from “natural wine” cohort were, let’s just say, technically controversial, however, they left an indelible mark on a wider trend in winemaking styles that has now established itself in the genre of lighter reds.
Basket Range already had a centre of gravity, in a good way, courtesy of the Broderick family planting vines in the area in 1980.
Phillip Broderick recalls at the time being told he was mad – the Adelaide Hills was not even a seriously recognised region, let alone he was favouring varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot, the so-called Bordeaux grapes that were thought unsuited to such cooler climes.
Forty-five years on Basket Range Wine, the origin estate and brand of the infamous district, is the epitome of how right region, right site, right varieties and contemporary winemaking can deliver beautifully delicate and finely flavoured wines that hit the mark in terms of lighter and more elegant styling.
The wines created from the Bordeaux varieties, in most Australian iterations full bodied and powerful, are in another class out of the Broderick vineyard, which surrounds the winery, the fruit barely travelling a few hundred metres after harvesting before it begins its vinification journey. We see in the Basket Range Bantam, a blend of Merlot, Petit Verdot, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon and Saperavi not just a snapshot of the Broderick’s vineyard across three steep slopes with varied compass-point aspects, but all its varieties cleverly woven into a unique lighter red wine that reflects both the estate’s grounded mindset and suits contemporary palates. The Adelaide Hills lends itself to wines from those varieties, never pushing towards the more robust end of the spectrum, winemaker Sholto says.
“What’s special is the brightness of those Bordeaux varieties and a style of wine which is always going to have elegance and prettiness to it,” he says.
“Then we can also put a barrel of Pinot into this blend and lighten it up a little bit more.
“It’s not some kind of weird mismatched assemblage – it’s quite purpose driven.
“It’s always going to lend itself to being something more easily accessible.”
Accessibility, versatility, drinkability – these are all in some senses marketing buzzwords that have now found their way into the reality of how we drink wine these days.
They refer to food compatibility, seasonal awareness (think chill-ability) and, more esoterically, an easy drinking and friendly personality in the glass.
Perhaps we should add the most important of all: deliciousness.
The first of those is the driving inspiration for the wine styles created by Bernice Ong and Julian Forwood in their Ministry of Clouds collection.
All their wines, from the Mediterranean varieties out of McLaren Vale to their Adelaide Hills stand-out, the LDR, (the 2023 vintage was a trophy winner at the recent Adelaide Hills Wine Show) are devised with food in mind, the rest follows naturally.
LDR, by the way, stands for Light Dry Red, a very smart trio of Hills Pinot Noir, Syrah and Gamay, each from three different vineyards in the Charleston, Woodside and Oakbank districts.
Everything about the crafting of this wine, from the cool morning harvesting through gentle winemaking and judicious barrel maturation, is done to accentuate the fragrance, fruit flavour and delicate weight of the wine.
“I don’t mind looking for a more gentle touch, the purity, the brightness, while still reflecting the vineyards,” Bernice says.
“We feel it’s appropriate for the foods we want to eat and the way in which we’re eating these days – (the different cuisines and sharing of multiple dishes) – that a wine can cross all those boundaries.
“It’s about reflecting modern Australia and who we are, where our palates are at, our sense of curiosity and experimentation in all that we do.
“It’s an important thing for us – it is really why we’re making wines.”
