Deemed to be the New World’s most successful producer of wine, it was only a matter of time before we made a foray into Australia’s wealth of potential for world class wines. The extraordinary increase in exports at the turn of the century secured Australia’s place as a producer of large volumes at excellent price-points, but the terroir-driven, smaller wineries have grappled to steal time in the limelight from these larger corporations. This is precisely what we were biding our time to tap into, and we have found a spectacular producer from Clare Valley as our first Australian agency.

Adelina is one of the fantastic smaller wineries that reflect the Australian wine industry’s desire to offer a wider array of grape varieties, including Italian varieties such as Arneis and Nebbiolo, which are showing real promise in certain pockets of the country. Australian wine producers benefits enormously from their considerable ‘free reign’ when it comes to the regulations on viticulture and vinification restrictions, even if water availability and irrigation costs limit them from a geographical point of view. The scope for further potential in terms of the undiscovered suitability of different grapes and the undiscovered corners of this vast country is incredibly exciting. Australia has, as Jancis Robinson notes, ‘remarkable geological and climatic diversity which can deliver as broad a spectrum of aromas and flavours as anywhere else in the wine-producing world’. She adds that ‘it comes as no surprise therefore, that small-volume, terroir-focussed wines are increasingly championed’. Adelina embodies exactly this.

Clare Valley is a relatively small wine-making region but its geographic size has had no impact on the quality of wines it produces. Famed for its picturesque hill-top vineyards, diurnal temperature shifts and great soil variation, Clare Valley is one of Australia’s oldest wine producing areas with production dating back to the early 19th Century. The long, warm summer days coupled with cool nights ensure that the grapes grown in Clare Valley develop a great depth of flavour giving the resulting wines crisp acidity and impressive structure. Whilst the Riesling’s from this small region have made a name for themselves across the world, other varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz are not to be overlooked. Italian varieties like Arneis and Nebbiolo are also proving to be well-suited to this unique and world-class growing environment.