Low-yielding bush vine grenache at Blewitt Springs must be hand-picked due to the lack of trellising.
Sub-regions of McLaren Vale
Going Deeper Underground...
Some more technical details of McLaren Vale's Vineyard Geography from a d'Arenberg perspective.
The soils of McLaren Vale vary greatly and are very randomly distributed because the area is made up of glacial deposits, beach sand and limestone. Vines are planted on a wide variety of soils including podsolic soils of low fertility, fertile red-brown earths, terra rossa, rendzina, soldolic and dark cracking soils.
The influence the soils have on the ripening period requires picking different parts of the vineyard at different times. In McLaren Vale, much of the soil is sandy in nature over deeper clays. This is, in fact, an advantage as this structure allows an even dispersal of moisture through the sands upon the clay bed rather than water running off soil with high clay content due to the lack of penetration.
Red soils often containing ironstone gravel layers and overall tend to yield very low, less than 1 tonne/acre, producing concentrated fruit characters.
In the Reynella area, vineyards are found on gently undulating land at about 100 m elevation. In the north around Blewitt Springs elevation is around 200 m. To the east, vineyards rise to an elevation of 320 metres as they follow the foothills of the Southern Mt Lofty Ranges to Sellicks in the South. Over the remainder of the region, elevation is between 50 and 100 m. These variations in elevation have a significant impact on the terroir of the vineyards.
McLaren Vale is spread across a ridge with good air drainage meaning vineyards enjoy minimal temperature variability and good exposure to cool afternoon coastal breezes from the southwest. Regional temperature variability is less than 1.5° C.
McLaren Vale Sub Regions
Tatachilla Road
The smallest of the sub-regions in the area is west of the McLaren Vale Township. This is the closest sub-region to the sea. The topography of vineyards within this region has some of the greatest fluctuations from the lowest, to peaks comparable between McLaren Vale and Seaview. The soils are red-brown earth over limestone and in most years fruit ripens the earliest and has intense ripe fruit characters similar to flavour profiles found in the Seaview region.
Seaview
(Traditional dry grown area for Grenache favoured by d’Arenberg)
Heading west-southwest from Blewitt Springs, the undulating hills lower in altitude. This sub-region is known as Seaview and is located just north of the township of McLaren Vale. The soils in this region are highly variable from red earth clay on limestone to sand on marly limestone to grey loam on clay. Shallow soils are among the poorest in the region resulting frequently in low yields and low vigour. Hill tops in the Seaview sub-region experience warm nights and cool afternoon sea breezes while valleys experience cold air drainage off the range as it flows towards the sea at night. Vines on the hilltops generally ripen early and produce peppery spicy bold wines, while vines in the valleys ripen considerably later producing wines with bold ripe dark plum characters.
Willunga
South of McLaren Vale, Willunga can be found nestled in the Foothills of the South Mount Lofty Ranges. This is an area that originally was planted with groves of almonds which over time has been replaced with vine. An area widely planted today with undulating gentle slopes that flatten out heading toward the sea is known as Willunga Flats.
Many new vineyards established here are producing very good fruit as the soils in this area are Gilgai or grey clay over limestone with pockets of red earth on limestone. Currently we source very little from this area, however there are sites that look extremely promising due to having warmer aspect.
Sellicks Hills
This the most southerly region extends from Willunga along the base of the Southern Mount Lofty Ranges to Sellicks and across to the coast. The strip of soil here, mostly red heavy loam, has been eroded from the range. It is deep and conducive to large crops. Strong gully and sea breezes of the Gulf reduces vigour and yield while minimising disease incidence.