Boutique hotels
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North Bundaleer
- Style
- Vintage Victorian homestead
- Setting
- Wineries and wilderness
Clare Valley Overview
Australia
- Countryside
- Agriculture meets viticulture
- Country life
- Gimme a riesling
An hour or so north of South Australia’s more famous Barossa Valley, the historic Clare Valley in the Mid North district punches well above its weight in the wine stakes.
Producing just three per cent of this land’s quaffable stock, it still rakes in 20 per cent of the industry’s awards. Young, sweet and fragrant, the riesling is really what you’re here for. Knock around the Barossa and then roll into Clare, and you’ll notice a seismic shift in atmosphere. Gone is the squat German colonial architecture, replaced by refined stone structures built with boomtown mining money. Absent too are the garish signs, swapped for subtle, boutique marketing and discreet cellars. The Clare Valley delivers a personable wine experience with aplomb. And its landscape is tasty too: rolling hills and villages steeped in history.
Completely Clare Valley
Touring the Clare Valley you get a sense that before anyone discovered you could grow wine here, the area had an established identity and was a potent place indeed. With the ‘Monster Mine’ in nearby Burra spewing out copper in the 1840s, the Clare towns evolved along the transport route, with impressive stone properties built in prospering Auburn, Mintaro and Clare. But then in the 1850s someone discovered gold in Victoria and all the miners shipped out – boom went bust. Thankfully the architecture remains – a lavishly optimistic gallery of European-style old buildings.
Local knowledge
- Taxis
- Clare Valley Taxis (08 8842 1400) runs between the towns in the valley.
- Tipping culture
- Like elsewhere in Australia, tipping here isn’t mandatory, but tip 10 per cent in restaurants and cafés if your service came with a smile.
- Siesta and fiesta
- Local shops and banks open 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday; many shops also open 10am to 4pm on Saturdays. Cafés usually open for breakfast around 8am and close around 4pm. Restaurants generally serve lunch from noon to 2.30pm; dinner from 6pm to 9pm. Most wineries open around 10am and close around 5pm.
- Packing tips
- Bring some bike-riding gear – one of the best ways to experience the Clare Valley is on two wheels – and make sure you leave plenty of room in your luggage for a few bottles (or more) of fine Clare Valley riesling.
- Recommended reads
- The Story of the ‘Monster Mine’ by Ian Auhl tells the tale of Mid North copper-town Burra and the transport route to the coast through the Clare Valley, which founded most of the local villages. Viticulture and Environment by John Gladstones looks at the Clare Valley’s microclimates, explaining why the riesling here is so good.
- Cuisine
- Expect farmer-sized food portions (read: huge). Unlike the Barossa Valley, the Clare Valley hasn’t gone totally upmarket – any eatery worth its salt will still have a chicken schnitzel and a hefty steak on the menu.
- Regional specialities
- The CV may trail the Barossa in gourmet terms, but anything tastes good with a crisp summer glass of that riesling. You’ll also find better-than-good bottles of shiraz, sangiovese, pinot grigio, viognier and cab sauv. Most cellar doors have free tastings and open from 10am to 5pm.
- Currency
- Australian dollar (AU$).
- Time zone
- GMT + 9.5.
- Dialling codes
- Country code: +61; South Australia: 08 (drop the 0 if dialling from outside Australia).
- Do go/don't go
- Summer in South Australia (December to February) can be a crazed, crowded and sun-burnt prospect, particularly around this neck of the woods, which is closer to the dry Outback than the more populated regions. A better idea is to visit during autumn (March to April) when the harvest is on and the days are cooler.
Don't go home without...
walking, or even better, cycling, along a section of the Clare-to-Auburn Riesling Trail (www.southaustraliantrails.com).
