AN EVENING IN THE CLARE VALLEY
The Clare Valley is a very small part of Australia: it takes just 25 minutes to drive from Clare in the north to Auburn in the south. But the valley, really an inter-weaving series of rolling hills and valleys from north to south, punches well above its size in terms of the quality of wine produced there, as we found out last evening at a very entertaining few hours in Blackrock Castle where our guide to the area was none other than Tim Adams.
Tim and his wife Pam set up there in 1987, starting with an input of just 10 tonnes, now up to a current crush of 850. Wine styles are traditional and Tim has strong opinions on wine-making.
He puts the Clare Valley success – there are very few big producers here – down to the unique combination of the climate, the altitude, the soil (in part, rich in red iron oxide) and the weather where a cooling ocean breeze drifts in so regularly you can do without your watch and still know the time. The area is very strong in Riesling, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz and we had examples of all to taste.
And each and every bottle had a
