Chapel Hill, McLaren Vale

Situated in the acclaimed McLaren Vale wine area is one of the more beautiful and classy cellar doors you can visit. Chapel Hill, a winery that takes its name from the historic ironstone chapel built on the property in 1865.

The chapel closed in its centenary year (1965) and fell into disrepair until its restoration in the 1970s. Tom Nelson then established a winery and the Chapel Hill brand in 1973.

A new winery was constructed in 1994 with a capacity of 1000 tonnes the equivalent of around 80,000 cases of wine. In 2000 Chapel Hill was acquired by the Swiss based family of Thomas Schmidheiny. Ok enough with the history. If you’re interested in learning more visit the website.

Now on to the most important thing, the wine and the tasting experience. Chapel Hill is a great facility for having a taste with friends or with that just special one. The remodeled and refurbished church has been tastefully put together and makes for a great setting. Heck they even have art work there for the cultured among us to have a good Captain Cook (kiwi recons the only culture Koala has needs medication).

McLaren Vale is a favorite South Australian wine region for many people and has more than 60 cellar doors. The region’s warm climate means it produces great Shiraz, Grenache, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay as well as varietals that include Tempranillo, Viognier, Marsanne, Rousanne, Barbera, Sangiovese, and we are sure we are missing some. 

Getting to Chapel Hill is an easy drive that takes less than an hour from Adelaide city. 

At Chapel Hill the focus in the vineyard is on sustainable viticulture and they apply some biodynamic principles to improve vineyard health and to reduce their reliance on chemicals.

Chapel Hill produces more than eighteen different wines and hard as it is to believe, Koala tried talking the tasting room attendant into pouring them all. She was smart enough not to fall for his sweet talking. 

The wines were all very good, and some were excellent. Koala’s favorite and bottle purchase was The Vicar. The Vicar is Chapel Hill’s flagship wine and it is a blend of the best vineyard selection of Chapel Hill’s most outstanding parcels of McLaren Vale Shiraz. One nice drop! The Vicar rates an 8 and ** on our Official scale.

Go down to McLaren Vale and stop on in to Chapel Hill for a taste of some great wines in a beautiful setting. Koala ‘recommends’ it!

Happy Wine Adventures,

Cheers,

WineWalkabout

Kiwi & Koala

The cellar door is open from 11am-5pm daily, closed on Christmas Day and Good Friday.