Until a kombi trip last summer, Riverland to me was simply the engine-room of Australia’s “Sunshine in a Bottle” wines. The place where a fair whack of this country’s wines were produced, and mostly of the bag-in-box variety.
But three hours northwest and a breakdown near Banrock Station changed all that.
It’s true, there are vast tracts of irrigated vines.
It’s true, there are the big white tank farms of Berry and Kingston.
It’s true, there’s a lot of wine bulk wine produced.
But what I had no idea of, was how stunningly beautiful this region was, how the twisting, turning Murray that runs through it is more than just a river – it is the vein that pumps the lifeblood of this place through the land and the people.
The river.
You have to go there to appreciate what it means. When the river is low, the mood is one of struggle, of battling. When the river is high, the mood is high.
We spent some time of a huge, luxurious houseboat, enjoying 5-star dining as the sun set, and we spent time in a dinghy catching yabbies and drinking hand-crafted beers.
The two experiences, for me, sum up the region in terms of wine.
There’s Banrock Station (the Wetlands are quite simply stunning when the river is generous), Angove, Kingston, Selena Estate and Thachi Wines – the big houseboats.
There’s more Chardonnay planted in Riverland than the combined total of anywhere else in South Australia. It’s rich and ripe.
There’s a fair bit of Shiraz planted too. Copes well with the heat, and you get real plum and dark fruit flavours, while Cabernet and Merlot gets rich raspberry flavours, and hopefully some chocolate and mint in cooler years.
But then there are the yabby-tinnies, too, making wines that speak of the region’s potential in alternate varieties, like 919 Wines, Burk Salter, Mallee Estate, Omersown and O’Donohue’s (a madder chap I’ve never met in the wine industry, I swear, but he can make wine, and he can make chocolate!).
Max Allen, in his wonderful book “The Future Makers” talks about the Riverland as being the region that can really change the direction of Australian wine for a more sustainable future.
It’s great that regions are getting biodynamic, and planing varieties that need less irrigation.
But when the Riverland starts doing this kind of thing, you get wholesale change, and it’s a beautiful thing.
Have a look at some of the Vermentino’s coming out of the region, get out onto the river in a tinnie, scout around for some yabby pots (find a local – I did NOT tell you to poach!) and experience the Real Riverland.
It’s a beautiful place.