The Riesling Trail: In the Mid North region of South Australia

We’re on the Riesling Trail and a lovely little wooden bridge across one of the sideways, Quarry Road, which heads towards the main centre, Clare.

We’re a long way off the main road but the views are just classic Clare country and here you’ll find one of the new signs that’s just gone in to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the trail. It tells us about some of the ingenuity back in 1917 when they built a rather tall concrete embuttment to take the embankment and the bridge. They mixed the concrete down the bottom, got it in a wheel barrow and then stuck it on a rope, pulley at the top, gave the horse a yell and up she went - and up the bridge went! It’s lasted very well - mind you when they took up the rails, when the railway closed in the 80’s, they took everything including the bridge, so this rather sweet one is modelled on the original bridge and it’s here thanks to the Clare wine makers and BHP.

The ‘Garden of the North’, that’s what they called Clare a century ago. It fed the Burra copper miners with fruit and veg and became a service centre for farmers and…………. a renowned wine making region, of course!

And for the past decade it’s been a starting point for one of the great pushbike and walking paths of Australia. Right on it, in a little hamlet of Clare, called Donnybrook, Tony Cox tends the Riesling Trail Cottages - the ideal place to stay if you’re planning to explore this area.

Tony is also on the Voluntary Management Committee and I asked him, as we cycled along the trail, to introduce us to some of the new additions the committee have created for the 10th anniversary. As we arrived where the trail crosses College Rd. at Seven Hill, Tony explained this point marks the beginning of 3 of the major loop trails developed for the more adventurous cyclists.

The Father Rogalski Loop takes you into the Polish Hill River Valley and up the hill into Pauletts Winery. The ride may be a little demanding but it’s the views, rather than the ride, that will leave you breathless.

And there’s plenty of riesling-like complexity of flavour along the special offshoot path just laid by the historic Seven Hill winery.

The young Jesuit priest who founded it named it after the Seven Hills of Rome. They decided to make their own sacramental wine - so those vines planted in 1852 started a Clare Valley tradition and today, only the Seven Hill Jesuit winemakers make the alter wine for all of Australia and parts of Asia.

Cycle past the cottage ruins that once provided a roof for the visiting Blessed Mother Mary McKillop, and the smokehouse turned shrine - and you’ll find a warm welcome and some fine wines to taste…but don’t get side tracked for too long - another 10th Anniversary Riesling trail delight awaits…

Tony directs us over the main North Road to the John Horrocks loop and all the little wineries of the Spring Gully. Like their wines, this is a ramble to be savoured slowly…high country valleys of vines with paddock patches and gumtree ridges - the Clare Valley signature.

One of the wineries you’ll encounter along the way is Skillogalee. It’s a Gaelic word for a watery gruel once fed to Irish prisoners - now it means quite the opposite. Long perfect lunches overlooking the vines, rieslings that really enhance the valley’s reputation and 5 star accommodation in a settlers stone farmhouse. It may be days later when you rejoin the main Riesling trail at Penwortham!

And in Penwortham you’ll discover the monument to the loop’s namesake, John Horrocks, reminding us of the young English explorer and his awful fate.

On an expedition north he shot himself in the face as his camel lurched and he died back here 3 weeks later. The main trail passes behind the lovely St. Mark’s Church and the graveyard where he’s buried.

The old railway line route is a peaceful ribbon through the luscious landscape - you really do see the Clare Valley in a totally different way.

As Tony says, “I guess Clare’s well known for it’s riesling, in particular the 2002 vintage put Clare back on the map with some of it’s exquisite rieslings.”

Those famous grapes are pictured appropriately where the old line skirted above Watervale…when you see that name you’re well on your way to a classic riesling experience. There are more expansive views as the old railway line heads south. It runs 25 kilometres through the Clare valley from Clare to Auburn. It’s a 2 hour ride non-stop or a 7 hour walk…but who going to be in a hurry here?

Now when you get to the Mellors Quarry sign you’re almost at the end of the trail. Mellors quarry, behind the sign, is quite famous in our heritage. In 1870 it provided stone for the University of South Australia’s building on North Terrace, parts of the State Library and even the South Australian Museum - what’s more Mellor and Scott, who ran it, put up some of the finest buildings in the nicest little town you could possibly hope for, Auburn, at the end of the trail…

And right at the end it all finishes at the old Auburn railway station which is now a winery, Mt Horrocks, but of course, this is the Riesling Trail.

You’ll get all the information on the wineries, the places to stay and eat, and the new trail brochure from the Clare valley Visitors Information Centre.

Clare Valley Visitors Information Centre
229 Main North Road
CLARE, SA, 5453
(open 7 days)
ph: 1800 242 131
www.clarevalley.com.au