When Henry Pike clambered off the boat from Dorset onto the Port Adelaide docks in 1878, it’s unlikely he would have imagined his name (and attendant fish insignia) would be emblazoned across Clare Valley wine bottles 140-something years later. Pike headed for the Adelaide Hills and started brewing beer, then soft drinks. Then in 1984, his family bought 27 hectares in the Clare Valley’s Polish Hill River subregion and planted riesling vines. Beer re-entered the fray in 2014, with the launch of Pikes Beer Company. Quite the liquid history!
These days Pikes is a Clare Valley mainstay, offering 40-minute seated tastings of riesling and four wines of your choice in the contemporary stone-and steel cellar door (10.30am to 3.30pm); and/or beers in the adjacent tap room and beer garden (10am to 4pm), serving lunch daily. Elevate your culinary experience at Slate Restaurant (noon to 3pm Thursday to Sunday), an estimable Mod Oz eatery headed up by chef Tristran Steele. Book everything ahead. Grab a magnum of ‘The Merle’ reserve riesling on your way out.
