McLaren Vale, the home of the Curtis Family Vineyards, is just 45 minutes' drive south of South Australia's capital of Adelaide, has been making wine for one and a half centuries. That's not as long as wine has been made in Italy, but the results are just as encouraging. And how a family with its ancestry dating back to the 15th Century has brought its expertise to McLaren vale with a new range of wines with an impressive European lineage.
McLaren, whist upon his surveying journey to Section C, 40km south of Adelaide his party came across a wide valley that members of the party instantly named after their leader. It was agreed, 'This wide valley of McLaren gave promise of much beauty and fertility'. Settlers began taking up holdings south of the Onkaparinga River by the end of the year.
Interest in viticulture in the colony increased rapidly and in 1831 James Busby travelled through Spain and France collecting cuttings of grape cuttings for the colony. He was recorded as having collected 433 varieties from the Botanic Gardens in Montpellier, 110 from the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, 44 from Sion House near Kew Gardens in England and 91 from other parts of Spain and France. At this time, varieties were not well characterised and it seems certain that some were repeated in this introduction under more than one name, perhaps many more - the same name may also have been used for more than one variety, It is clear from the catalogue of the collection put out by the Sydney Botanical Gardens in 1842 that some of the varieties may also have been confused, for example Semillon is described as a black grape and Malbec as a white. Unfortunately, this collection was removed in 1857 - but not before cuttings has been distributed to Camden, the Hunter Valley and the Adelaide Botanical gardens from where they spread throughout Australia.
The new faces behind the Curtis Family Vineyards are Mark, Thomas & Jenna Curtis, with the guidance of their father, Claudio Curtis who lives on the vineyard just outside McLaren Vale. The name Curtis is thought to derive from Curtius, a noble and wealthy family of the First and Second Centuries AD, the Roman Empire era originating from the Latinium people.
Records show that the Curtis Family name first appeared in Cervaro in 1471, a town established by the Latinium tribe in Central Italy around the Second Century AD. Cervaro is situated approximately 10klms south of the monastery town of Monte Cassino, the site of some of the bitterest fighting between the Allied and German forces in Italy during World war II.
The township of McLaren Vale originally consisted of 2 small villages; Gloucester, to the east, established in 1851 and Bellevue to the west established, in 1854.This accounts for the towns long main street.
Gloucester, which was south of the current Tintara winery, grew into a thriving community. Walter Leonard purchased Lot 1 in Gloucester and built a mill opposite Charles Lewsey Lot 2, where he made wine and Brandy and conducted his business as carpenter and undertaker. By the 1870's the community included the mill, two hotels (the Devonshire Arms 1849 and the Salopian 1851), a saddlery, stores, a brewery, a blacksmith, a butcher, five schools, and later a creamery.
In 1852 a group of local farmers held a meeting at the Devonshire Arms, and decided to build a Mill in Bellevue, and a month later, the foundation stone having been laid, the company returned to the Devonshire Arms to celebrate the occasion. It functioned until the 1870's and was purchased by Thomas Hardy who converted it to a winery that became the Mill cellars; parts of it are included in the present Hardys Tintara Winery. Bellevue had a Tannery, a blacksmith and a Coach stop Way station that is now the Barn restaurant, and a lime burner who conducted his trade at the rear of the cottage that bears the name today. The Wesleyan Church opened for worship in 1858, and this Methodist - Uniting Church was demolished in 1987, and in December 1988 the new church was opened. The Bellevue school established by Reverend Prior was conducted in a house near The Barn in Ellen Street.
Successful mushroom culture was carried out near by also.
McLaren, whist upon his surveying journey to Section C, 40km south of Adelaide his party came across a wide valley that members of the party instantly named after their leader. It was agreed, 'This wide valley of McLaren gave promise of much beauty and fertility'. Settlers began taking up holdings south of the Onkaparinga River by the end of the year.
Interest in viticulture in the colony increased rapidly and in 1831 James Busby travelled through Spain and France collecting cuttings of grape cuttings for the colony. He was recorded as having collected 433 varieties from the Botanic Gardens in Montpellier, 110 from the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris, 44 from Sion House near Kew Gardens in England and 91 from other parts of Spain and France. At this time, varieties were not well characterised and it seems certain that some were repeated in this introduction under more than one name, perhaps many more - the same name may also have been used for more than one variety, It is clear from the catalogue of the collection put out by the Sydney Botanical Gardens in 1842 that some of the varieties may also have been confused, for example Semillon is described as a black grape and Malbec as a white. Unfortunately, this collection was removed in 1857 - but not before cuttings has been distributed to Camden, the Hunter Valley and the Adelaide Botanical gardens from where they spread throughout Australia.
The new faces behind the Curtis Family Vineyards are Mark, Thomas & Jenna Curtis, with the guidance of their father, Claudio Curtis who lives on the vineyard just outside McLaren Vale. The name Curtis is thought to derive from Curtius, a noble and wealthy family of the First and Second Centuries AD, the Roman Empire era originating from the Latinium people.
Records show that the Curtis Family name first appeared in Cervaro in 1471, a town established by the Latinium tribe in Central Italy around the Second Century AD. Cervaro is situated approximately 10klms south of the monastery town of Monte Cassino, the site of some of the bitterest fighting between the Allied and German forces in Italy during World war II.
The township of McLaren Vale originally consisted of 2 small villages; Gloucester, to the east, established in 1851 and Bellevue to the west established, in 1854.This accounts for the towns long main street.
Gloucester, which was south of the current Tintara winery, grew into a thriving community. Walter Leonard purchased Lot 1 in Gloucester and built a mill opposite Charles Lewsey Lot 2, where he made wine and Brandy and conducted his business as carpenter and undertaker. By the 1870's the community included the mill, two hotels (the Devonshire Arms 1849 and the Salopian 1851), a saddlery, stores, a brewery, a blacksmith, a butcher, five schools, and later a creamery.
In 1852 a group of local farmers held a meeting at the Devonshire Arms, and decided to build a Mill in Bellevue, and a month later, the foundation stone having been laid, the company returned to the Devonshire Arms to celebrate the occasion. It functioned until the 1870's and was purchased by Thomas Hardy who converted it to a winery that became the Mill cellars; parts of it are included in the present Hardys Tintara Winery. Bellevue had a Tannery, a blacksmith and a Coach stop Way station that is now the Barn restaurant, and a lime burner who conducted his trade at the rear of the cottage that bears the name today. The Wesleyan Church opened for worship in 1858, and this Methodist - Uniting Church was demolished in 1987, and in December 1988 the new church was opened. The Bellevue school established by Reverend Prior was conducted in a house near The Barn in Ellen Street.
Successful mushroom culture was carried out near by also.
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