Clare Valley
Continental Mediterranean, high altitude
A cool, high valley north of Adelaide, and the home of Australia's most distinctive dry Riesling, with Shiraz and Cabernet on the warmer slopes.
Overview
About Clare Valley
The Clare Valley lies about 130 kilometres north of Adelaide, in a series of narrow, high valleys that run north to south. It is best known for Riesling, which here makes a dry, intensely citrus-scented white, often described as lime and mineral when young and turning toasty and honeyed with age. In 2000 a group of Clare producers famously moved en masse to screwcaps for their Riesling, an early sign of a broader shift in Australian wine.
The region has two named sub-districts for Riesling: Watervale, on deeper red soil over limestone, which gives softer, more floral wines, and Polish Hill River, on harder slate and shale, which gives tighter, more mineral ones. Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon are also grown on the warmer slopes. A 35-kilometre cycling and walking route, the Riesling Trail, follows a former railway line between cellar doors.
Clare Valley is marked on the map.
Australia
Shaded: South Australia. Map units are states, provinces or départements, so a smaller place appears as the larger area that contains it.
The land
Climate & terroir
Climate
Continental Mediterranean, high altitude
Warm days and cool nights, a result of altitude, with vineyards at roughly 400 to 500 metres. The rainfall is modest and mostly falls in winter, so vines are often dry-grown or lightly irrigated.
Terroir & soils
What the vines grow in
Red-brown loam over limestone at Watervale, and thin, slaty, stony soils at Polish Hill River. Both are low in fertility, which keeps yields modest.
Go deeper
Rules, years & producers
Clare Valley is a geographical indication, with two named sub-districts for Riesling, but no quality tiers of its own.
Clare Valley GI
The registered geographical indication; wines must have at least 85% of grapes from the region to name it on the label.
Watervale and Polish Hill River
Sub-districts of the Clare Valley, with distinct soils, and named on the label of some Rieslings.
What's grown here
Grapes
Each grape's page links back here.