The High Ground of Australian Fine Wine
Musings from Wirra Wirra CEO, Matthew Deller MW.
Few regions in Australia offer the compositional precision and site transparency of the Adelaide Hills. Defined by elevation, variability and natural tension, it is a place where fine wine finds structural clarity from the vineyard itself.
The Adelaide Hills GI contains the highest-elevation fine wine vineyards in South Australia, with sites in the Piccadilly Valley reaching up to 714 metres. This altitude moderates ripening and extends the growing season, delaying phenolic maturity, slowing sugar accumulation and preserving natural acidity. These effects are measurable and repeatable across vintages.
Soils shift between schist, sandstone, clay and sandy loam, sometimes within the same block. Combined with slope and drainage, this complexity creates distinct vine balance and canopy development, influencing everything from phenolic build to harvest timing. The result is a region defined by precision and site variation.
From Wirra Wirra’s perspective, the Adelaide Hills has evolved far beyond its historical role as a source of Sauvignon Blanc. Elevation, aspect and tension are producing wines of clarity, character and confidence, most notably in Chardonnay and Riesling.
“The Adelaide Hills gives us a rare balance,” says Wirra Wirra Chief Winemaker, Emma Wood. “It offers cool nights, long ripening seasons, and real tension in the fruit. For us, it’s an essential part of our winemaking story, especially for our white wines.”
Chardonnay: Elevation and Tension
Chardonnay remains the region’s most structurally coherent white variety. It ripens at moderate Brix, with low pH and phenolic firmness that accommodates both reductive and oxidative handling. What matters here is that structure comes from fruit, not from correction or construction.
In warmer years, sites in the Piccadilly Valley and upper Lenswood provide the acid line that elevates wines like The 12th Man Chardonnay. In cooler years, vineyards in Lobethal and Woodside provide palate weight and phenolic fill. The consistency is not stylistic, but structural, the fruit gives winemakers room to adapt based on season, without compromise to balance.
Sauvignon Blanc: Citrus and Compositional Integrity
Performing best above 450 metres, Sauvignon Blanc from the Hills offers citrus and nettle-driven aromatics, with acid retention and varietal clarity at moderate alcohol. Crucially, the fruit requires no acid correction, sugar rounding, or artefact to achieve balance.
Our Hiding Champion Sauvignon Blanc is a reductive stainless-steel ferment with no skin contact or oak. Its profile is varietally precise and technically stable. The composition allows for dry, linear wines with consistent texture and moderate alcohol, aligned with the expectations of modern premium white wine consumers.
Riesling: Dry, Site-Led and Technically Reliable
Though more selectively planted, Riesling from Woodside and Lobethal delivers high natural acidity, low pH and clean flavour development at modest alcohol. These sites support dry, textural wines with phenolic definition and reliable structure across vintages.
The Lost Watch Riesling is pressed long and fermented cool to dryness, with no sugar retained and no acid adjustment. It presents as dry, linear and texturally driven, with the clarity and tension that suit both immediate release and mid-term ageing.
At Wirra Wirra, our increasing investment in the Adelaide Hills is deliberate. We’re drawn to its purity, precision, and the creative freedom it gives our winemaking team. The Hills doesn’t ask us to construct complexity, it offers it naturally. For buyers looking to source cool-climate whites with reliability, relevance and character, Adelaide Hills delivers.
For more information, please contact Wirra Wirra CEO, Matthew Deller MW via email here.
