The following excerpt comes from Huon Hooke’s article on South Australian wine regions:
Adelaide Hills enjoys closer proximity to costal breezes than Eden. Especially in the cooler, higher parts, it is spared the extreme heat that bedevils Adelaide and lower-lying regions of Barossa and McLaren Vale. In the 2008 heatwave, Adelaide and environs had 15 days over 40C which wrought havoc, but the highest parts of the Hills were far less affected. Brian Croser of Tapanappa says his Tiers Chardonnay vineyard at 500m in the Piccadilly Valley hit a top of 36C – still hot, but manageable.
Croser’s discovery of Foggy hill, his Pinot vineyard near Parawa at the southern tip of the Fleurieu Peninsula, two hours’ drive south of Adelaide, adds a new cool climate. The scope for vines here is great: the gentle hills reach as high as 350m and the folding topography offers many choices of aspect and slope. Sea breezes and fogs moderate the climate additionally. There are few vineyards to date, but with no real competition from housing, this will soon change.
