We had a fantastic time on our wine tour! We wanted to visit a few wineries in McLaren Vale for our corporate EOFY celebration, and Emma created the perfect itinerary for us — starting at Angove Wines for a tasting, on to Coriole for a delicious lunch, and a final stop at Vale Brewery for some drinks.
A big thank you to our driver Wes as well — he was a great guide throughout the day, and very easy to talk to! We made a last-minute change to our itinerary, and Wes accommodated us without any problems.
Thank you Emma and Wes! We had an amazing time — highly recommend!
A World of Flavour, 40 Minutes from Adelaide
McLaren Vale Wine Tours
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Rolling vineyards to the coast, bold reds led by Shiraz and Grenache, with excellent whites along the way.
CHOOSE YOUR EXPERIENCE
McLaren Vale Private Wine Tours
Tell us what you love — we'll plan the rest.
Your day at a glance — a starting point, not a script. Your wineries, your day.
1
10:00 AM
Door-to-door pickup
Your guide picks you up from your door. No meeting points, no timetables, no stress — just step outside and your day begins. We handle the driving, the bookings, and the details so you can focus on the wine, the views, and the company.
2
10:45 AM
First winery — Mediterranean warmth
Start with a private tasting at one of the Vale’s finest — think Oliver’s Taranga, Primo Estate, or Wirra Wirra. Bold Shiraz, Grenache, and Mediterranean varietals that thrive in this warm, coastal-influenced climate.
3
12:00 PM
Second winery — Stunning scenery, boutique
A smaller producer doing things their own way — single-vineyard wines, hands-on winemaking, and the kind of personal welcome you only get from the people who grew the grapes. This is McLaren Vale at its most authentic – Paxton, Kay Brothers, or Samuel’s Gorge
4
1:15 PM
Third winery for Lunch — however you want it
For some groups lunch is the centrepiece: a four-course sit-down at a winery restaurant. For others, lunch preference is a platter over a wine tasting.
Both work. When you book, Emma will call to talk through which suits your group.
5
2:45 PM
Afternoon tastings
One or two more cellar doors in the afternoon — your guide adjusts the itinerary based on what you’ve loved so far and what you’d like to explore. Such as Molly Dooker, Down The Rabbit Hole, Box & Dice or maybe a brewery.
6
5:30 PM
Door-to-door drop home
Back to your door with a car full of wine and a day you’ll be talking about for a while.
Private Group Charter - Pricing
A private vehicle exclusively for your group, your own guide, your own schedule. Perfect for friends, families, and corporate events across the McLaren Vale wine region
Everything below is covered
- All premium tasting fees at every winery
- Private vehicle & dedicated guide for the full day
- Fully customisable itinerary
- Bottled water throughout the day
- Door-to-door transport from your accommodation
- Personal call to plan your perfect day
- Full 8 hr day
- Corporate & event packages available
In South Australia, cellar door tasting fees typically run $25–$35 per person, per winery. Yours are all covered.
Pricing by group size
No charge for anyone under 18 –You only pay for the adults.
16+ guests
$138pp
13+ guests
$168pp
8+ guests
$188pp
5+ guests
$248pp
3+ guests
$328pp
2 guests
$398pp
Working to a budget, or after a more relaxed day? Just one or two tastings, then casual drinks in the gardens. Get a quote Call Emma 0487 487 111
The Region
McLaren Vale
Nestled just 45 minutes south of Adelaide, McLaren Vale is one of Australia’s oldest and most prestigious wine regions. With more than 80 vineyards to explore and the Fleurieu Peninsula’s picture-perfect coastline nearby, this is wine country at its finest.
While you might associate McLaren Vale with Shiraz, ultra-premium Grenache and Cabernet from the region are in a class of their own. Add Fiano, Vermentino, Tempranillo and Sangiovese, and there’s a world of exploration waiting.
Torn between regions? McLaren Vale is closer to the city and famous for Shiraz by the sea, while our private Barossa winery tours offer barrel tastings in working sheds you can’t visit any other way. Many guests do both across two days — ask us about combining them
Experience McLaren Vale Like a Local
From world-class Shiraz to stunning coastal vistas, McLaren Vale is wine country at its most captivating. Let us create a day filled with memorable wines and unforgettable moments.
FAQ
What wine is McLaren Vale known for?
McLaren Vale is famous for bold Shiraz and Grenache grown close to the coast, along with a growing reputation for Mediterranean varieties like Fiano and Nero d’Avola. The maritime climate gives the reds a distinctive richness you won’t find in cooler regions like the Adelaide Hills.
How far is McLaren Vale from Adelaide?
McLaren Vale is about 45 minutes from Adelaide’s CBD — one of the closest premium wine regions to the city, which is why it suits half-day tours or visitors on a tight schedule.
What's the difference between McLaren Vale and Barossa wine tours?
McLaren Vale is closer to the city and known for coastal Shiraz, while the Barossa is Australia’s most famous wine region and home to our exclusive private winemaker shed visits. Many guests do both across two days — see our Barossa Valley wine tours for what makes them different, or ask us about combining the regions.
How many wineries do your Mclaren Vale tours go to?
Four cellar doors and a long lunch is the usual shape of a McLaren Vale day.
You can fit more in here than in the other regions without the day feeling rushed. McLaren Vale is flat and compact — most cellar doors are five or ten minutes apart rather than spread across winding hill roads — so more of the day is spent tasting and less of it travelling.
If you’d rather slow down, we’ll do two in the morning, a leisurely lunch, and one more or two more in the afternoon. Tell us which you’d prefer when you book.
What is a private wine tasting?
You sit down with someone from the winery who pours five or six wines and talks you through each one. It’s not a drink at the bar — it’s a hosted experience, and cellar door tasting fees in South Australia typically run $25 to $35 per person per winery. Ours are covered.
Can you visit McLaren Vale without a car?
Not easily. The cellar doors are spread across about fifteen kilometres with no practical public transport between them, which is why most visitors either nominate a designated driver or book a tour.
What McLaren Vale wineries have restaurant
- d’Arenberg — d’Arry’s Verandah
- Coriole — The Coriole
- Mitolo — Little Wolf
- Chalk Hill — Cucina di Strada
- Down The Rabbit Hole — Fiore, plus casual dining
- Angove — Vineyard Kitchen
- Wirra Wirra
- Serafino
- Bec Hardy
- Beach Road
- Geoff Merrill
- Haselgrove
- Shottesbrooke
- Varney
- Vigna Bottin
- Main & Cherry
- Sabellas
We’ll book a table for you wherever you’d like to eat, and there are plenty of good options beyond the wineries too — The Currant Shed among them.
What is the oldest winery in McLaren Vale?
The first vines went in around 1838, within two years of South Australia being settled, making McLaren Vale one of the country’s oldest wine regions. Wineries were operating here by 1850, and some of the vines still producing fruit today were planted in the 1800s.
When is the best time to visit McLaren Vale?
Any time of year — the seasons just give you two different days. In winter the cellar doors light their open fires and there’s nothing better than a glass of Shiraz beside one. In spring and summer it all moves outside, with tastings in the gardens and long lunches under the vines. Both are wonderful.
Are McLaren Vale wineries suitable for children?
In summer, yes — the region is full of families spread out on the lawns while the adults taste, and a few cellar doors like Down The Rabbit Hole have a small playground to keep them busy.
Winter is harder. The lawns are wet, everything moves indoors, and there’s not much for children to do while the adults are tasting. If you’re travelling with kids over the cooler months, it’s worth planning a shorter day or building in a stop or two that isn’t a cellar door.
Tell us who’s coming when you book and we’ll shape the day around it.
Is the Adelaide Hills or McLaren Vale better for a day trip?
Depends what you drink and what you want to look at.
Go to the Adelaide Hills for whites — Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, sparkling — and for the scenery: forested valleys, historic villages, cool air, log fires in winter. It’s the closer of the two, half an hour from the city.
Go to McLaren Vale for reds. Shiraz and Grenache off very old vines, plus Italian and Spanish varieties like Fiano and Nero d’Avola that suit the warmer coastal climate. It’s about forty-five minutes south, flatter and more compact, so less of the day goes on driving between cellar doors. You can finish at the beach, too, which the Hills can’t offer.
Is the d'Arenberg Cube worth visiting?
Yes, if you know what you’re walking into.
The Cube is a five-storey building standing in the middle of a Mourvèdre vineyard, designed to look like a half-solved Rubik’s cube. Chester Osborn spent years getting it built and there’s nothing else like it in Australian wine. Inside there’s a tasting room with views across the whole region, a surreal art museum, and a Salvador Dalí exhibition.
It’s an attraction more than a cellar door. Admission is ticketed, it gets busy, and the art is as much the point as the wine — though d’Arenberg’s reds are seriously good and worth your attention while you’re there.
If you want an hour of something genuinely strange and memorable, it’s excellent. If you’re after a long unhurried tasting with the person who made the wine, that’s a different kind of stop, and McLaren Vale has plenty. We’ll build in either, or both.
Can you visit the beach on a McLaren Vale wine tour?
Yes — and it’s one of the things that makes McLaren Vale different from the other two regions. The coast sits about ten minutes from the vineyards.
Port Willunga is the one most people want. The old jetty posts standing out in the water are the most photographed thing on this coast, and the clifftop above it — where the Star of Greece sits — is a very good place to end a day of tasting.
Aldinga Beach is a few minutes further south: long, wide and flat, and you can drive straight onto the sand.
Sellicks Beach at the southern end has the big open views down the Fleurieu.
Your day is built around what you want, so if you’d like to finish with your feet in the water, just say so when you book.
What is McLaren Vale Grenache like?
Lighter and prettier than most people expect from a warm region.
McLaren Vale Grenache leans red-fruited — raspberry, redcurrant, dried strawberry — with a savoury, almost dusty edge and fine chalky tannins rather than weight. Good examples come in around medium-bodied and are better slightly chilled.
The reason it’s so good here is old vines. Some of the region’s Grenache plantings date to the 1800s, on their own roots, and they’re bush-trained and dry-grown. Low yields off old vines give concentration without heaviness, which is the trick most warm-climate Grenache never pulls off.
It’s also changed direction in the last decade. Growers used to pick it late and make it big; now most pick earlier and make it fresher, which is why McLaren Vale Grenache is currently getting more attention internationally than its Shiraz.
What Mediterranean varieties does McLaren Vale grow?
More than anywhere else in Australia, and it’s become one of the region’s defining strengths.
Whites:
- Fiano — the standout. Textural, savoury, with pear and almond notes and enough grip to handle food far better than most Australian whites.
- Vermentino — crisp, saline, citrus-driven. Made for the seafood coming out of the gulf ten minutes down the road.
- Grillo and Arneis in smaller plantings.
Reds:
- Nero d’Avola — Sicilian, dark-fruited, juicy, with lifted acidity that keeps it fresh despite the warmth.
- Tempranillo — savoury and medium-bodied, doing well in the cooler pockets.
- Sangiovese, Aglianico and Montepulciano in smaller volumes.
Is McLaren Vale good for a half-day tour?
Yes — better than the other two regions for it.
McLaren Vale is about 45 minutes from Adelaide, and once you’re there the cellar doors sit five or ten minutes apart on flat, straight roads. There’s very little of the day lost to travelling, so a half day genuinely buys you a half day of tasting rather than a lot of driving with two stops squeezed in.
Realistically that’s two cellar doors, or two plus a quick look at the coast.
You’ll miss the long lunch, which is a real part of the experience here, and you won’t get to the further-flung producers. If you can stretch to a full day, take it. But of the three regions, this is the one where a half day still works properly.
What is the Shiraz Trail?
An eight-kilometre walking and cycling path running from McLaren Vale township to Willunga, built along a disused railway line.
Because it follows the old rail grade it’s flat and easy the whole way, and it runs straight through vineyards for most of its length. At the Willunga end it links into the Coast to Vines rail trail, which continues north towards the coast if you want to keep going.
Saturday is the day to do it — the Willunga Farmers Market runs that morning and it’s one of the best in the country.
It’s really a day of its own rather than part of a wine tour. But if you’d like to ride it and finish with a tasting, tell us and we’ll build the day around it.
Which McLaren Vale wineries have the best views?
The region slopes from the hills down to the gulf, so the best outlooks face west across the vines towards the sea.
- Hugh Hamilton (McMurtrie Road) — a 270-degree tasting room with probably the best panorama in the region.
- Samuel’s Gorge (Chaffeys Road) — an 1850s farm shed looking out over the Onkaparinga River National Park. A completely different outlook to the rest, and a rustic, unhurried one.
- Coriole (Chaffeys Road) — old stone buildings and terraced gardens on a hilltop above rolling hills. The prettiest setting rather than the widest view.
- Maxwell Wines (Olivers Road) — carved into a limestone hill, with the restaurant attached.
- d’Arenberg Cube (Osborn Road) — the top floor has the broadest outlook in the region, if you don’t mind sharing it.
What are some hidden gem wineries in McLaren Vale?
- The old farmhouse on McMurtrie Road, directly across from Wirra Wirra — three small wineries pouring under one roof: Bondar, Sherrah and Lino Ramble. Three serious makers in a single stop, and almost everyone driving in to Wirra Wirra never thinks to look across the road.
- Samuel’s Gorge — an 1850s farm shed above the Onkaparinga River National Park. Tiny production, no polish, and one of the most enjoyable stops in the region.
- Primo Estate — Italian winemaking traditions applied to McLaren Vale fruit, tasted with local bread and olive oil. Quiet, and deeply loved by the people who know it.
- Oliver’s Taranga — a family estate making serious reds, well off the main run of cellar doors.
- Angove’s Vineyard — organic, with wine and spirit flights and a seasonal kitchen.