On my 2024 new year’s list is spending more time in the Clare Valley. We know the wines are great, as good as any made globally, yet they do have a twist to them. What creates this character will have something to do with the how the unusual geography reacts with the climate weather.
You gain an idea of the taste of a wine by the latitude and elevation and the latitude of Clare at 33.8° in northern hemisphere terms runs across the top of Africa.
The elevation means the warmth is controlled yet the wines, whites and reds show surprising delicacy. The quality of the Rieslings makes no sense using our normal European frame of reference yet in the glass they shine as great as any.
I first noted the surprising complexity of the Cabernets when the Clare winery Stanley Leasingham began to show class with the release in the 1970s of the Bin series Bin 56 Cabernet Malbec and Bin 49 Cabernet Sauvignon.
They were very great wines with an attractive minty outlook. Thus, when recently offered a range of Clare Cabernets we pounced. Glug customers will be enjoying The Barn and Batch 12A and this Broken Slate is from the same purchase.
