From the Earth

Yangarra is an aboriginal word meaning "from the earth."

All of our wines are grown on our single-vineyard Estate in the Blewitt Springs sub region of McLaren Vale, South Australia, with 250 acres of vines in 35 individual blocks spread amongst 420 acres of creeks, native vegetation and nature corridors. The Estate sits at the north-eastern extreme of the Willunga Basin at the foot of the South Mount Lofty Ranges.

We are utterly devoted to minimal intervention in viticulture and winemaking. Our desire is to produce wines that are the most brilliant possible reflection of the Estate's unique terroir and provide a profound sense of place.

The key to Yangarra's unique flavours is a large, smooth dune of Ngankipari Sand, a precisely-delineated Aeolian, or wind-blown geological formation that was laid down about a million years ago (which is very young in Australia's ancient geology). This sand is an extremely weathered remnant of mountain ranges that stood here 1.6 billion years ago, weathered away, and then rose again 500 million years ago. After a second weathering, the current ranges began to rise about 100 million years ago.

The Bird Farm

Old Australia stubbornly returning
Entering Yangarra Estate is like reading the history of the settlement of Australia. At the entrance, near the small stone farmhouse, European trees and birds dominate. As you work your way past the gracious retirement pen of Mick, the one-horned Marino Ram, and discover the two eucalypt-lined creeks that dissect the property, you see an old Australia - which had been nearly cleared away - stubbornly returning.

Thousands of healthy new native plants mark those creeklines-attracting an astonishing array of birdlife, which had nearly disappeared during the old regime.

This far in to Yangarra, the busy chorus of these birds of the air replace any hint of traffic noise.

They're taking their country back.