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The Clare Valley wine region is located north of the city of Adelaide. The GI region is 680 km2 in size and has a total of 5093 hectares of vineyards. The region was settled in the late 1830s, with the first vineyards planted and wines produced in the early 1840s.
The climate features a warm to hot summer, but cooling afternoon breezes play a major role in slowing down the ripening process.
The main varieties grown in the region are Riesling, Shiraz, and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Clare Valley Regional Snapshot 2023-24
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.
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- The temperature data is often said to be very misleading due to the large diurnal variation
- Drops of temperatures from 40°C during the day to 1°C at night are common during main ripening months
- Altitude and aspect within the valley important
- Protection from or exposure to cooling maritime breezes
- 11 different recognised soil types
- Polish Hill is known for broken slate
- Watervale has limestone in sub-soils