Adelaide Plains
The Adelaide Plains region is located just to the north of the city of Adelaide. The GI region is nearly 1000 km2 in size and has a total of 567 hectares of vineyards.
The region has a dry yet maritime climate, with an annual rainfall among the lowest of any Australian wine region.
The main varieties grown in the region are Chardonnay, Colombard, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz
Adelaide Plains Regional Snapshot 2019-2020
Regional Snapshots are one-page profiles updated annually of individual Australian wine regions. They provide at-a-glance summary statistics on: climatic characteristics, viticulture data, winegrape production, and winegrape price and export sales data for wine, compared against the same statistics for the whole of Australia.
Download nowCabernet Sauvignon
A medium to full-bodied, forward, ripe style Cabernet Sauvignon has long been a mainstay of the Adelaide Plains and is often blended with Shiraz or Merlot.
Chardonnay
Most of the Chardonnay produces wine of a medium to full-bodied style, with tropical fruit and ripe peach flavours.
Shiraz
In the hands of the region’s small producers, this wine can have remarkable quality, showing a totally unexpected touch of spice that is normally reserved for cooler climates. Winemaking skills have no doubt played a part, but it demonstrates what can be achieved with grapes grown on mature vines and with controlled yields.
- The climate is hot and rainfall is extremely low during the growing season, so viticulture is made possible by irrigation and summer's south-westerly sea breezes.
- The growing season rainfall of only 192 millimetres (7.56 inches) is as low as in any Australian region.
- The compensation is a climate in which it is very easy to ripen large crops of grapes in a virtually disease-free environment.
- There are two soil types. The most common is the ubiquitous red-brown loamy sands found through so much of south-eastern Australia, with alkaline subsoils and free limestone at deeper levels. These are excellent viticultural soils that readily support the typically high yields of the region.
- There are also smaller patches of heavier loam and cracking clay soils which are very different in structure but, once again, tend to alkalinity rather than acidity, promoting vigorous vine growth.