Charles Rawlings-Way

Forget the ‘City of Churches’ tag – Adelaide has just as many pubs, not to mention bars of all persuasions, which have ridden a boom in recent years following a tweak to licencing laws that now allow small bars to serve booze without food.  From city-fringe craft beer nooks to gin and whisky dens taking design cues from across the planet, there’s a bar here to suit every mood and tipple of choice. Adelaide is also a UNESCO ‘City of Music’, so expect to hear some live jazz, an acoustic troubadour or at least a DJ spinning rock classics while you quench your thirst. Oh, and don’t forget the wine. Given that South Australia is the nation’s wine-producing heartland, you can expect nothing but top bottles here. The 12 best bars in Adelaide – the ‘City of Booze Bunkers’ – are waiting for you.

Standing in a McLaren Vale vineyard on a hot summer afternoon, gazing across the vines to the shimmering Gulf St Vincent, this place could be Tuscany... But that’s just the wine-tasting talking. McLaren Vale is definitively South Australian – and at just 45 minutes south of Adelaide, it’s also one of the most easily accessible wine regions in the country. Backed by the rippling topography of the Willunga Scarp, McLaren Vale’s agrarian landscape is a gorgeous patchwork of vineyards that was, at one stage, nominated for World Heritage listing. Shiraz grows ridiculously well in the Vale’s deep terra rossa limestone soils – but with 80-plus cellar doors to visit, you’ll also find grenache, sangiovese, fiano, vermentino and other Med styles with which to blur your afternoon. Grab a map at the visitor centre, get someone else to drive, and start tasting. Heading a different direction? No problem. Check out our list of the best wineries in the Barossa. 

Take Main North Road out of Adelaide and keep going for an hour and a half. As you roll into Ngadjuri Country, photogenic little Auburn marks the southern bookend of the Clare Valley. There’s a real shift in the landscape here: the silos and rolling wheatfields of the Mid North district give way to vineyards, historic stone villages and sheltered creek beds studded with huge old redgums. Clare itself, the valley’s northern bookend, is just 24 kilometres further on: in between are 50-plus wineries (around 30 cellar doors), bottling up mineral-rich reds, semillon and riesling to rival the world’s best. Snaking through it all is the 33km Riesling Trail, a disused rail line that’s been converted into a bike/hike path, taking you past some of the valley’s top cellar doors. So saddle up and get sipping. Would rather stay in the city? Check out our list of the best things to do in Adelaide.

Just a tick over 64km north of Adelaide, the compact Barossa Valley is one of the world’s great wine regions. This is traditional Peramangk and Ngadjuri country, with baking hot summers, cool winters and mineral-rich soils – perfect conditions for producing big, beefy red wines. Shiraz is the local hero, with some mighty fine rieslings emerging from the slightly higher, slightly cooler Eden Valley sub-region, just over the rise. There are more than 150 wineries in the Barossa, and an astonishing 80-plus cellar doors. You could spend weeks going between them, sipping fine wines all day long – but that’s probably not entirely sensible. Why not start with our 13 top picks, and take it from there?

The question of the absent hill doesn’t seem to bother anyone at Penny’s Hill, just off the main road linking McLaren Vale and the historic village of Willunga. Or maybe the road’s gentle incline is the hill? Hmmm… But forget the nomenclature: everybody’s here to try some fine Penny’s Hill wine, the quality of which is beyond question.  The winery has expanded since its first vintages in the early 1990s, buying-up pastoral leases and wine blocks around ‘Ingleburne’, a handsome two-storey stone homestead from pre-20th century days. Ambitious, sure – but why not, when the dirt underfoot (sandy loam over clay) is so conducive to growing grapes. Shiraz and grenache are the leading lights here—but winemaker Alexia Roberts also knows a thing or two about wine from the adjacent Adelaide Hills. Tapping into the Hills’ altitude, chilly nights and valley mists, cool-climate sauvignon blanc from Kuitpo and chardonnay from a Piccadilly Valley holding broaden the tasting experience at the Penny’s Hill cellar door. Such a shame the restaurant has closed! Spending the weekend in Willunga? Check out Port Willunga Beach for a sunny afternoon.

What’s the definitive McLaren Vale experience? Take a sunny hillside, stripe it with rows of mature vines, insert a photogenic 1850s stone farmhouse down a long dirt driveway, add an olive grove and a conifer or two … then open a bottle of fine shiraz as the sun tracks its way towards the western horizon. Coriole delivers – and does so without a whiff or haughtiness, exclusivity or braggadocio.  Tastings at the cellar door ($15), one of Coriole’s original stone farm buildings, are typically laidback. No bookings are required, but be prepared to wait, as it’s a cosy space with limited numbers (hot tip: arrive early to late to beat the crush). The staff will happily take you on a tour from chenin blanc to sangiovese, nero d'avola and shiraz, and they are just as happy to talk sustainability: Coriole is big on solar, native revegetation, rainwater harvesting, composting and organic gardening. The restaurant here, Gather, with its clattering tables and chairs and local Willunga slate floor, uses vegetables and herbs grown on-site. Book ahead for a set-menu degustation lunch from Thursday to Monday. Or swing by the Arbour Bar for a bottle of Estate Shiraz and watch the late-afternoon sun do its thing. McLaren Vale defined. Planning another wine road trip? Have a look at our list of the best wineries in the Clare Valley.

Even if Chester Osborn hadn’t invented the undeniably amazing d’Arenberg Cube, the winery itself would still be somewhere near the top of the list of McLaren Vale’s best. But he did – and now d’Arenberg has evolved from being merely an excellent winery to become an essential McLaren Vale ‘experience’, its towering Cube the posterchild for all and sundry regional promotions. What is the d’Arenberg Cube? Well, as Osborn, d’Arenberg’s chief winemaker, would no doubt agree, it’s eccentric. A giant black-and-white, five-level maze, taking its architectural prompts from the famous Rubik’s Cube, the d’Arenberg Cube (entry $15 including tastings; book ahead) brings together a quirky museum, a cellar door, restaurant, art gallery and video room, with myriad opportunities to catch some views. In the tasting room on the top level, sip your way into d’Arenberg’s dizzying array of reds and whites (the Dead Arm shiraz and Broken Fishplate sauvignon blanc are perennial faves) – then launch into some harissa chicken wings or a cube-shaped Reuben sandwich at casual Eat@Polly's on level three. Looking to amp up the style? Book a table at the enduring (and endearing) d’Arry’s Veranda Restaurant in the adjacent 19th-century homestead – still one of SA’s best regional restaurants. Care to learn more about this curious cube? Read on over here. 

If a show-stopping view is what you’re looking for in a cellar door, then stop the show right here. Samuel’s Gorge winery occupies a picture-perfect 1853 stone farm shed, sitting high on a ridge above a gorgeous gorge. Far below, the Onkaparinga River snakes its way through the green of its namesake national park. What a spot!  The vibe at the cellar door is handmade and unpretentious, with no sign of the glass-and-steel architectural glam of many of its neighbours. Instead, Samuel’s Gorge is all stone, timer and weathered corrugated iron, surrounded by rambling flower beds and herb gardens. In your tasting glass, the focus is squarely on five red varieties: grenache, shiraz, mourvèdre, graciano and tempranillo, all of which grow beautifully in McLaren Vale’s Mediterranean airs. New directions are afoot with the Samuel’s Gorge ‘Piñata People’ label, which ventures into the arena of rosés and whites. In pre-Covid days, BYO picnics were de riguer here – we miss them! Tastings are free, but it’s a compact little place: book ahead. Like drinking wine in places with beautiful views? Who doesn't! Head on over to Pauletts.

Into architecture, much? Glamorously poised by the roadside in McLaren Vale’s slightly higher, slightly cooler Blewitt Springs subregion, Beresford is worth a visit on design principles alone—before you even get to the wine. This modernist, angular tasting pavilion is an exercise in magazine aesthetics, enticing clientele to match (don’t turn up in footy shorts and thongs). This isn’t to say that Beresford is at all snooty: being here brings a sense of serenity – of bearing witness to the building’s great beauty, and becoming a player in the architects’ grand designs.  A visit to Beresford is a chance to feel beautiful, too, as you enjoy the bounty of the estate’s 70 acres (with adjunct vineyards on the other side of the Fleurieu Peninsula in Langhorne Creek). Tasting experiences (from $10) meander through lush grenache, shiraz, cab sav and chardonnay offerings, offset by pizzas and regional cheese platters—best enjoyed on the deck, or by the suspended fireplace inside if it’s wintry. SA beer and gin tastings and mod accommodation at Beresford House are also available. Book ahead for everything. Want more wine and cheese? Check out our list of Adelaide's best bodegas. 

Steve Pannell spreads his ambitions beyond just McLaren Vale, doing good things with grapes from as far afield as Langhorne Creek and the Adelaide Hills. This means some excellent cool-climate wines also receive Steve’s loving attentions – sauvignon blanc, riesling, pinot gris and pinot grigio among them. It’s also fair to say that Steve isn’t afraid to try a new direction or two with his winemaking, taking visitors to his McLaren Vale HQ on a tour through fields of fiano into barbera and touriga nacional country. S.C. Pannell is also one of the bigger cellar doors in McLaren Vale, its vast terrace scoring bonus points for bedazzling views across vine-lined fields to the western sunsets. This means Pannell’s is prime territory for weddings, parties and anything else that needs a bit of elbow room. But roomy doesn’t mean a loss of personal service: you can still expect an enthusiastic tasting tour of S.C. Pannell’s diverse offerings (and several brands) here. Book ahead; groups of up to six people maximum. Tasting fees apply. OK, so you're obsessed with South Australian wine. Why not check out our suggestions for the best of the Barossa?

The antithesis of McLaren vale’s slick, mainstream, big-turnover cellar doors, Foggo conjures up crafty, unaffected and handmade vibes, with small-batch wines to match. So unassuming is the cellar door here, that you might think you’ve made a wrong turn and driven into someone’s front yard. Inside the low-slung brick structure is an equally modest brick-and-timber tasting room with a compact bar and a chesterfield or two – a couple of easy chairs out the front the only outward indication that you’re here to try some wine. But what wine! Handcrafted from Foggo’s compact 20-acre holding, sustaining some of McLaren Vale’s oldest and gnarliest-looking vines, Foggo’s shiraz, cab sav, grenache and chardonnay are rich and full-bodied, textured by the French and American oak barrels they’ve been stored in. For something different, ask about a sticky tasting flight of Foggo’s excellent fortifieds (a tawny, topaque and fortified white). Tastings start at $10. Weekends only; call ahead to make sure somebody’s around. For more places to grab a mid-day bite, head over to our list of Adelaide's favourite lunch spots.

When the new Mitolo cellar door arrived on the McLaren Vale scene a few years ago, everybody went, ‘Oh wow! So that’s what a cellar door/restaurant can look like!’ And indeed, Mitolo is a beauty: a mod-industrial pavilion linking a series of charcoal-grey steel shipping containers with expansive glass walls and timber decks – a sleek cargo-meets-cubbyhouse architectural hybrid.  Inside, the cellar door vibe is sophisticated and formal, with tasting flights ($20 to $40) taking Insta-worthy guests on a journey through Mitolo’s range of Italian varietals (aim for the nero d'avola) and flagship shiraz and cab sav product. It’s all very glam and classy – a mood which extends into the Little Wolf Osteria (lunch Friday to Sunday; dinner Saturday) in another zone of the same complex, where delicately crafted Italian masterpieces are steeped in house-made, house-grown and locally sourced ethics. If you’re looking to dress up and impress your date, Mitolo is for you. Undermine all your hard work by grabbing jumbo shiraz takeaway on your way out the door (‘Oh looky! Magnums!’). Looking for some good Adelaide eats? Check out our list of the best restaurants in Adelaide. 

If you follow the twists of Pedler Creek out the back of McLaren Vale, heading east, you’ll come to the rather deflatingly named little town of McLaren Flat. But what do grape vines know about town boundaries? The soil, sun and soakage here are just the same as down the road in the McLaren Vale – minus the traffic, tourists and tractors.  If you’ve made the effort to get here, Woodstock does its best to hold onto you, with a cellar door (tastings $10), wine bar, restaurant, wildlife park and accommodation. Woodstock wines follow suit, covering plenty of bases to please the masses—from sparkling white, riesling and rosé to the mandatory shiraz, finishing off with a sticky selection of muscat, tawny and sundry fortifieds. Offset the liquids with some solids at the Coterie Kitchen, open from Friday to Sunday for lunch, serving grazing platters, nibble plates and crispy German flammekueche flatbread (don’t ask, just enjoy). Book ahead for everything. Fancy a cocktail instead? Try this fun summer sipper.

Foggo Rd isn’t really on the way to anywhere in particular in McLaren Vale – you could even say it’s a bit of a backwater. But there are some engaging low-key wineries here these days, plus the excellent Pizzateca restaurant should you fancy a break from all that wine sipping.  But pizza can wait. Treat your guilty conscience (and your sense of humour) to a cellar-door session at the Confessional. Absolve your sins then create a few new ones as you move through the tasting list, which is surprisingly diverse for a relatively new winery. Reds steal the show – shiraz (of course), grenache, cab sav, montepulciano, sangiovese plus a few blends – or there’s a very decent chardonnay and vermentino for a hot SA afternoon. Then, suitably riddled with guilt, head to the confession booth (yes, there actually is one) where you can record your dirty little secrets onto camera and have them posted to the Confessional’s website for all to judge. Trust us, you’ll feel better afterwards. Call ahead for bookings and to see if they’re doing lunch platters. Looking to live out your cottage-core dreams in the center of the Adelaide CBD? Take a look at this quaint stay.

Before the d’Arenberg Cube rose from the McLaren Vale landscape, the word ‘iconic’ was most often used around here to describe Hugh Hamilton’s cellar door. Draped in vines, this circular hilltop eyrie opens-out to impressive 270º views across the Hugh Hamilton estate. It’s a top spot, made all the more dramatic by the winery’s looong driveway, lined with pointy Tuscan conifers. On the wine front, they’ve had some fun here inventing kooky wine names: the Trickster, the Black Sheep, the Strutter, the Mongrel, the Intruder, the Ratbag, the Villain… It mightn’t be immediately obvious what’s inside the bottle (anything from merlot to mourvèdre), but drinking wine is supposed to be about having fun, right? It’s easy for wineries to take themselves too seriously – an allegation you could never level at Hugh Hamilton. There are almonds to crunch on, olives to suck on, and non-alcoholic shiraz for the kids. Book ahead; tasting fees redeemable with purchase. Like drinking wine in places with beautiful views? Who doesn't! Head on over to Pauletts.

It’s perhaps ironic that one of McLaren Vale’s most widely recognised wines – Wirra Wirra’s eternally popular allrounder Church Block – is a blend, not a purist varietal. But really, when a blend is this palatable (merlot/shiraz/cab sav), there’s not much room for singular snobbery. Church Block is a stone-cold winner by any measure – but if you are after something more specific, Wirra Wirra does a classic McLaren Vale shiraz too (plus grenache, sauvignon blanc, riesling, chardonnay…all with a sustainable, biodynamic bias).  You could spend the whole day here, cavorting on the lawns; exploring the historic, vaulted-brick facilities (parts of which are 125 years old – tours from $40); and quaffing coffee and eating panini at Harry’s Deli. But most folks are here to lean on the woody tasting bar and enjoy some of McLaren Vale’s richest, most fulsome wines and decadent stickies (tastings from $10 – book ahead). Check out ‘Woodhenge’ on your way out – a quirky fence made from massive chunks of McLaren Vale redgum. Looking to explore a little more local history? Head over to the South Australian Museum.