About the Region
Coonawarra
The Coonawarra region is located in the South-east of South Australia, around four hours drive south of Adelaide. The wine region itself is comprised of a cigar-shaped strip, only 12km long and 2km wide, and is all but taken up by vineyards.
Coonawarra’s famous strip of rich, red terra rossa soil sitting atop deep limestone beds has given rise to many of the nation’s finest wines, with a worldwide reputation for unique flavour and quality. This, combined with the long growing season, marked by sunny and dry days followed by cool evenings, is an ideal combination for developing the intense varietal characteristics for which Coonawarra is renowned.
Coonawarra has an average rainfall of 640mm per year, a mean January temperature of 19.2 degrees, with temperature summation of 1337 heat degree days. This meteorological data shows a climate very similar to that of Bordeaux in France.
Wrattonbully
The Wrattonbully wine region is located on northern side of Coonawarra, extending around 40km towards Naracoorte.
This is one of South Australia’s newest wine regions and is quickly establishing itself as a premium grape growing region.
Our winemaker and viticulturalist were quick to realise the potential of this area due to its similarities to Coonawarra. Rich, free-draining terra rossa soils, reliable rainfall, and low relative humidity, and hence low disease risk, are all factors consistent with Coonawarra which lead to us planting our first vineyard here in 1998.
Limestone caves are a feature of the area, with the region being home to the World Heritage Listed Naracoorte Caves.
During the development of one of our Wrattonbully vineyards bulldozers ripping the calcrete prior to vine planting uncovered numerous caves, which were eagerly investigated by the Department for Environment and Heritage.
Wrattonbully has an average rainfall of 561mm per year, a mean January temperature of 20.4 degrees, with temperature summation of 1503 heat degree days.
