From Sydney to Adelaide via some of Australia’s best wine regions with a designated driver.
“Wine is constant proof that God loves us and likes to see us happy,” declared Benjamin Franklin. If that’s true, then God adores Australians perhaps best of all.
We are blessed with some of the world’s finest wines and most spectacular vineyards. The quality is rising each year as wine-making techniques are refined, yet the end product by and large remains remarkably affordable (just ask the Brits and Americans).
The great Australian wine boom goes from strength to strength. On average, a new vineyard opens every three days. Indeed, follow this route from Sydney to Adelaide and at times it looks like the continent is evolving into one vast vineyard, interrupted only by the odd unconquered paddock or saltbush plain.
We have mapped out a wine buff’s dream drive through some of NSW’s less-visited wine regions to the heart of the Australian wine industry: South Australia. Along the way, you will visit Orange, Cowra, Hilltops (Young), the Riverina, Sunraysia, Riverland and the Clare and Barossa valleys. If your liver can take it, you could add the Adelaide Hills and McLaren Vale wine regions and enter Adelaide from the south.
Some of the most interesting cellar doors along the way lie outside the established wine regions. Look out for the mavericks, such as Tizzana on the banks of the Hawkesbury or Ruberto’s in Hay. Allow at least seven days for this drive. And keep plenty of boot space for wine: you’re going to need it!
The quickest path to South Australia is down the Hume and Sturt highways. Our alternative route, via the Blue Mountains and central west wine regions, is longer but infinitely more enjoyable. Leave the city on Bells Line of Road, a scenic and relaxing alternative to the Great Western Highway for crossing the Blue Mountains. At Bathurst, take the Mitchell Highway to Orange, a town of many parks and fine historic buildings.
Vines spill down some of the surrounding hills and there are around a dozen cellar doors open for tastings, mostly on weekends but some on weekdays. ‘Foodies’ should not miss the excellent Selkirks and Highland Heritage Estate restaurants.
Vineyards line Cargo Road, the scenic road south to Cowra via Canowindra. The latter is also home to several wineries producing excellent chardonnays, including Hamiltons Bluff and Wallingtons. From Canowindra, continue south to another centre of chardonnay excellence: Cowra. Several wineries in the region are open seven days.
From Cowra, follow the Olympic Highway south to the cherry trees and vines of Young. The town’s reputation for fresh produce was built on scrumptious stone fruits but has in recent years expanded into wine. Five wineries offer tastings. (For more information about Orange, Cowra and Young, get Great Drives of NSW II — see page 36 for details.)
From Young, follow the signs for Temora (77 km) and the Griffith vineyards (247 km). Traffic evaporates and the hills soon melt into the plains that stretch to the South Australian border. Steepling grain silos dominate the clutch of railway settlements that you pass as you roll towards the irrigated vineyards around Griffith.
Thanks to irrigation, a region dismissed by the explorer John Oxley in 1817 as “uninhabitable and useless to civilised man” is one of the country’s largest producers of wine, rice, citrus and stone fruits and vegetables. Riverina vineyards produce
60 per cent of all grapes grown in NSW, much of it for export as cask wine. However, you can pick up excellent wine at great prices from cellar doors such as De Bortoli, McWilliams, Westend and Cranswick Estate. The city also contains some of southern NSW’s best restaurants — L’Oasis is a consistent award winner.
Pick up the Sturt Highway 36 km south of Griffith and steel yourself for the longest, flattest, driest, emptiest stretch of the drive. The Hay Plains are scrubby kangaroo country where the road is a shimmering silver ribbon in summer and the light can play strange tricks on the mind.
The town of Hay, 150 km from Griffith, is a popular rest stop on the banks of the Murrumbidgee, halfway between Sydney and Adelaide. The grandest and most recent of its attractions is the impressive Shear Outback complex, which houses the Australian Shearers’ Hall of Fame. Shearing displays make a visit highly worthwhile.
Hay is a brief interruption in the spinifex and saltbush plains that stretch much of the way to Mildura, 290 km further on. Balranald, about halfway, is the first of many riverside towns that you will pass en route to the Barossa Valley as you cross and recross the Murray. Mallee country gives way to vines near Euston and the density of wine production from here until the Millewa is staggering.
Mildura, on the Victorian side of the border, is a former river port now hemmed by vines. It’s a fine spot to break your journey, with historic homes, paddle-boats, galleries, citrus farms, great restaurants — Stefano’s is rightly famous — and of course, wineries. Among the cellar doors open to the public are Mildara, Trentham Estate and BRL Hardy’s Stanley Winery.
From Mildura, the Sturt Highway arrows across the golden fields of the Millewa grain country, where herds of emus mooch around and birds of prey scour the stubbly fields for an easy feed. On the other side of Murray-Sunset National Park lies South Australia.
A fruit fly inspection point and a giant Dunlop tyres arch over the road provide a rather uninspiring welcome to South Australia. Don’t worry: it improves quickly.
From here on, the Murray River seems determined to take the least direct course to the sea and it wriggles through splendid country for growing fruit and grapes. In fact, Riverland is Australia’s largest wine-producing region, accounting for more than a third of our grape harvest. There are cellar doors at Renmark (Angove’s, Renmano), Glossop (Berri Estates), Barmera (Bonneyview) and Kingston-on-Murray (Banrock Station). Of these, the must-visit is Banrock Station, which combines an attractive modern winery and restaurant (great views) with walking trails, bird-watching and wetlands.
From Waikerie, head for Morgan, another interesting river town, then head for Burra (88 km) and Clare (40 km south). You’ve arrived in a region of gentle hills, stone villages and church spires — and Australia’s finest Riesling. There are too many familiar names here to list but among the best are Annie’s Lane, Jim Barry, Knappstein, Leasingham and Taylors.
You’re just an hour and a half from Adelaide, but what’s the rush?
The heart of the Australian wine industry awaits 45 minutes south: the Barossa Valley. Here you will find some of the the biggest names in Australian wine: Penfolds, Orlando, Wolf Blass, Peter Lehmann, Yalumba. But it’s not all big business. There are around 50 wineries here, including small family-owned enterprises. Shiraz is a local specialty but no means the only grape type to look for.
Pick up a leaflet from a visitor centre and follow the well-marked tourist drive around the villages and wineries. Allow time to wander the streets of Tanunda, Angaston and Nuriootpa and try the fabulous German-style breads and meats.
From the Barossa, you can reconnect with the Sturt Highway for a direct run to Adelaide or skirt the city via the gorgeous Adelaide Hills and continue to McLaren Vale. For the latter, stay off the Sturt and drive via Lyndoch and Williamstown towards Gumeracha. There are 12 cellar doors scattered across these picturesque slopes and gullies, including Chain of Ponds, Shaw & Smith and Petaluma Bridgewater. The town of Hahndorf, settled by German immigrants in 1839, is a lovely place for a stroll.
The McLaren Vale region is half an hour further south via Mount Barker, Meadows and Willunga. Between visits to wineries such as d’Arenberg, Haselgrove, Tintara, Andrew Garrett, Kangarilla Road and Wirra Wirra, look for some of South Australia’s best restaurants: Salopian Inn, Star of Greece and Russell Jeavon’s wonderfully quirky Pizza House are all recommended.
Ready for Adelaide? Well, that doesn’t necessarily mean an end to fine wine and good food. No serious ‘foodie’ or wine buff can afford to miss Adelaide’s Central Markets or the National Wine Centre.
The Central Markets bring together 250 shops under one roof, with an astonishing range of produce from purple cauliflowers to Russian pies, Korean mung bean pancakes, Australia’s best chocolate (Haigh’s) and freshly-caught local fish such as Tommy Ruff and Boar Fish. All at prices that Sydneysiders can only dream of.
The National Wine Centre, housed in a modern architectural marvel, is enormous fun and highly educational. Interactive exhibits allow you to sniff different grape varieties or try to create your own ‘virtual’ prize-winning wine. And at the end, you can buy yourself a tasting selection and put your new-found knowledge into action by scoring your samples out of 20.
In the unlikely event that you haven’t tasted enough wine, it’s quite possible to map out a return journey that takes in another half dozen wine regions. How about the Coonawarra, Bellarine and Mornington peninsulas, Yarra Valley, Rutherglen and Canberra, for starters?
Steve Fraser travelled courtesy of the South Australian Tourism Commission and Audi.
4WD
