Pathaway – Click to Enlarge
Pathaway – Click to Enlarge
The Padthaway wine region lies 300 km south of the state’s capital, Adelaide. The region forms part of the Limestone Coast wine zone, which it shares with Coonawarra, Mount Benson, Robe, Wrattonbully and Mount Gambier. It is central to many surrounding towns, including Keith, Bordertown, Naracoorte and Kingston.
The region is quite distinct, being 62 kilometres long but just 8 kilometres wide. The Riddoch Highway runs through the middle of this 345 square kilometre region.
Padthaway was established as a wine region in 1963 when a Seppelt committee were tasked with finding a suitable site for large-scale plantings of early ripening varieties. The site was selected for its cool climate and underground water supply for irrigation. Thomas Hardy purchased the first plot of land here in 1968, followed by Lindemanns in the same year. 1998 saw the first major winery built in the region. Up to this point in time the region had mostly only housed field crushing stations.
Given the absence of any significant mountains, the region has an almost maritime climate. The region’s original bias towards white wines is surprising given that it is significantly warmer than Coonawarra to the south, with more sunshine hours, lower rainfall and fewer rainy days. This has led to the realisation that the region is perfectly suited to reds, and this shows in the dominance of varieties like Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.
