Eden Valley is considered a cool climate district. Cool climate districts though are not all the same since coolness can come from elevation or latitude or a combination.
Further variations are created by the closeness to the ocean, being a source of cool air, and rainfall as humidity seems to play a role in creating the taste.
A scan of an atlas shows the wide variations possible allowing us to visualise how the Eden Valley is a long way from the classical cool region of New Zealand. Thus its more accurate to refer to the Eden Valley as coolish. The district is large being to the east and south-east of the Barossa Valley with at least one vineyard at six hundred metres though most range between 300 and 500 metres.
As we Australians embraced table wine from the 1950s winemakers believed that the Eden Valley offered better potential for white wines than the Barossa Valley since the taste sensation of the coolness emphasised lightness and acidity, seen as desirable when drinking a chilled white.
