History
While McLaren Vale, and the entire Willunga Basin, is covered in vineyards today, the early settlers immediately saw its potential as a garden, and quickly planted it to vines, almonds, stone fruits, grains, olives and pasture for cattle. The first vineyard in McLaren Vale dates back to 1838 when John Reynell planted his vines south of Adelaide.

Since the beginning of the colony, McLaren Vale was recognised for the ease with which it grew the varieties of the Spanish and French Mediterranean coast. The hot summer northerlies, originating in the vast hinterland of Australia, always ensuring full ripening, are very similar to the siroccos, which come from the Sahara to ensure ripening in the Hermitage and southern Spain. Similarly, the proximity of the Gulf St Vincent ensures constant maritime humidity, just as the Mediterranean does in the valley of the southern Rhone.

Regional Climate
McLaren Vale - The best Mediterranean climate on Earth

Like it or leave it, the Great Southern Ocean is gradually taking a huge bite out of the desert at the bottom of Australia(1) . This 2,000 kilometre bay is quite appropriately called The Great Australian Bight. Enormous cliffs take up much of its length, separating the fizzing ocean from the vast treelessness of the outback. Whale breeding grounds on their south side; the Nullarbor(2) Plain to the north.

But there's calm green relief at the eastern end of the Bight, where the Gulf St. Vincent cuts its own tidy nick into the coast. (St. Vincent is the patron saint of viticulturers.) Sheltered from the wild southern ocean by Kangaroo Island, this pristine, sandy, sunny triangle enjoys what grinning locals call "the best Mediterranean climate on Earth".

On the eastern side of his Gulf lies McLaren Vale, a smooth, peaceful wine region spread with villages and vineyards in the Willunga Basin. This is only a forty-minute drive south from Adelaide, South Australia's capital city.

Yangarra Estate is at the northernmost reach of this basin, in the foothills of the South Mount Lofty Ranges.

1 Between 30 and 40 degrees south
2 Literally: "No trees".


     Annual Rainfall: 660mm
     Harvest: February – April