Adelina Wines

We seem to have a knack for working with excessively modest winemakers from South Australia. None more so than Colin McBryde, for whom the maxim ‘let the wines do the talking’ could so easily have been written. Luckily, there’s been no shortage of plaudits from the press and the trade. So, Col, if you are reading this, look away now—you’re about to hear some pretty nice things said about your wines! 

Let’s not pull our punches. Today Adelina is one of Australia’s most exciting grower-producers. It’s worth taking a step back to remind ourselves what underpins the continuous rise of this producer’s offering. Firstly, the quality of the terroir. Nestled against Wendouree and Aberfeldy and initially planted in the early 1900s, Springfarm is one of the Clare Valley’s oldest and most historic vineyards. Its low-yielding, dry-grown, old vines are primarily rooted in shallow, red-ish silt over clay with lime and slate: this is a place “steeped in the heritage of Clare and Australian wine folklore” notes Col.   

“Springfarm is steeped in the heritage of Clare and Australian wine folklore. Our time here has seen us transition from making wines from an old site to growing vines that produce wine expressive of its history.” Col McBryde, winemaker

Then, the wine growing is undertaken without compromise. It wasn’t always quite this way, as Col himself explains in Adelina’s Young Gun of Wine Top Vineyard entry, “20 years ago, the behaviour was focused on the production of wine. However, our paradigm shifted a few years after that to more of a focus on growing vines and the resultant wines became a much clearer expression of the site in a given season.” With the help of his partner-in-vine, winemaker Michael Maloney, McBryde’s work in the vineyard has become all-encompassing. 

Since 2012, McBryde has worked using organic practices, with certification achieved in 2020. In a blur of energy, each vine can be visited anywhere from eight to 12 times per growing season; for pruning, tying down, shoot-thinning, hoeing, fruit-thinning and hand-picking. This kind of diligence and endeavour has given the Springfarm vineyard a new lease of life: the elegance and purity inherent in every wine from this vineyard have followed suit.

The Adelina portfolio is a broad church. Electrifying Rieslings from the Clare and Eden Valleys, a far from classic Adelaide Hills Chardonnay, nuanced old vine Grenache and a Shiraz that has now officially reached cult status. And that’s just to scratch the surface.