Australia · McLaren Vale

Dandelion Vineyards

South Australian producer drawing old-vine Shiraz from the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, and Eden Valley, built on a founding philosophy of acidity and tannin over ripeness and alcohol weight.

The producer

Elena Brooks grew up in the back rooms of a Bulgarian winery, where her mother worked. By twelve she was interpreting barrel tastings for the winemakers; by sixteen she was making her own wine. When she came to South Australia and co-founded Dandelion Vineyards in McLaren Vale with Zar Brooks, she brought a philosophy formed long before she ever saw an Australian vineyard: that acidity, tannin, and aroma matter more than ripeness and alcohol weight.

Dandelion is based at 191 Chaffeys Road in McLaren Vale but draws old-vine fruit from three distinct South Australian sub-regions: Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, and Eden Valley. The range keeps those regions separate rather than blending them into a house style. Each bottle carries a sub-region name, and the grape and style choices follow from what each place does well. The Lionheart of the Barossa Shiraz rated 93 points Silver at the 2023 Halliday Wine Companion Awards. The Lion's Tooth McLaren Vale Shiraz Riesling, a co-fermented red and white, won the 2021 McLaren Vale Bushing Monarch, the highest-scoring wine from nearly 800 entries.

Known for

Multi-region South Australian Shiraz; co-fermented Shiraz-Riesling from McLaren Vale

Notable facts

The story

Pantyhose Chardonnay

Elena Brooks was sixteen when she decided to make her first Chardonnay. Her mother worked at a local winery in Bulgaria, and Elena had spent years there as a child, sitting in on barrel tastings and interpreting between the winemakers and the outside world. When she set out to make her own wine, she had no proper filtration equipment, so she used her mother's pantyhose as a filter instead. The wine got made. She came eventually to Australia, co-founded Dandelion Vineyards in McLaren Vale with Zar Brooks, and built a range that draws old-vine Shiraz from the Barossa and covers three South Australian sub-regions. The pantyhose filter and the Bushing Monarch are roughly twenty-five years apart, connected by the same instinct.

From the atlas

Dandelion Vineyards

At A Glance

The Producer

Elena Brooks grew up in the back rooms of a Bulgarian winery, where her mother worked. By twelve she was interpreting barrel tastings for the winemakers; by sixteen she was making her own wine. When she eventually came to South Australia and co-founded Dandelion Vineyards in McLaren Vale with Zar Brooks, she brought a philosophy formed well before she ever saw an Australian vineyard: that acidity, tannin, and aroma matter more than ripeness and alcohol weight.

Dandelion is based at 191 Chaffeys Road in McLaren Vale but is not a single-estate operation. Elena and Zar grow their own grapes and source old-vine fruit from three distinct South Australian sub-regions: Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, and Eden Valley. The range keeps those regions separate rather than blending them into a house style. Each bottle carries a sub-region name rather than a South Australia-wide label, and the grape and style choices follow from what each place does well.

Place

McLaren Vale is a coastal wine region south of Adelaide, where the Gulf of St Vincent moderates temperatures and most of the wine is red. Shiraz is the dominant grape, and the best parcels combine old-vine age with soils that hold warmth without cooking the fruit. The Barossa Valley, further north and inland, is Australia's most established Shiraz address: a warm, continental climate that produces dark, full-bodied reds from vines that in some cases have been in the ground for well over a century. Eden Valley sits at higher elevation above the Barossa floor, where cooler conditions allow Riesling and higher-acid Shiraz to develop alongside the valley's heavier styles.

For Dandelion, the practical consequence of drawing from all three regions is that each wine in the range arrives at a different weight and character. The Barossa contributes depth and density. McLaren Vale adds a savoury, sometimes chocolatey richness. Eden Valley lifts aromatics and tightens acidity. Elena's philosophy makes this footprint deliberate: three stories told in three bottles rather than averaged into one.

Soil And Site

Old-vine age is the common thread across the sourcing regions. In the Barossa and McLaren Vale, old vines are well documented, and Dandelion draws from some of the finest old-vine family vineyards in each area. Old vines typically produce lower yields with more concentrated fruit, and the resulting wines carry depth without requiring extraction or heavy oak to fill the palate. The specific soil types across these three regions vary considerably, but the selection principle remains consistent: parcels with vine age, low yields, and fruit character that suits the founding philosophy of acid and tannin over weight.

Story

Elena's path to McLaren Vale ran through a Bulgarian childhood rather than through a formal wine school or a regional apprenticeship. Growing up alongside her mother's work at a local winery, she learned wine by observation and improvisation before she learned it by training. That improvisational beginning shaped the way she thinks about winemaking: direct, terroir-led, and sceptical of alcohol weight as a proxy for quality.

When she and Zar established Dandelion, the range architecture they chose reflected that scepticism. Rather than producing a single South Australian Shiraz that averaged across regions, they separated the sourcing into distinct sub-region expressions. The Barossa wine is the Barossa wine. The McLaren Vale wine is the McLaren Vale wine. The separation is both an editorial and a farming commitment: old-vine parcels in each region are managed by the families who farm them, and Dandelion's role is to bring that fruit in.

The 2020 Lion's Tooth McLaren Vale Shiraz Riesling crowned that commitment in 2021, when it won the Bushing Monarch, the highest award at the McLaren Vale Wine Show, beating nearly 800 entries. A co-fermented Shiraz and Riesling from McLaren Vale was not the obvious choice for the region's top prize. It was the one Elena and Zar made.

Vineyards And Cellar

Farming across the Dandelion sourcing regions is a mix of conventional and organic practices, with the winery working toward Sustainable Winegrowing Australia certification. The emphasis on old vines is consistent: low yields concentrate flavour without requiring intervention in the cellar to compensate for thin fruit. Elena's philosophy deprioritises oak and alcohol as flavour drivers, which means the cellar work is oriented toward preserving what the parcels produce rather than adding texture or sweetness through wood.

The Lion's Tooth Shiraz Riesling is the most technically distinctive wine in the range. Co-fermenting or blending Shiraz with Riesling is a minor Australian tradition with roots in the Barossa, where early settlers sometimes grew the grapes alongside each other. In practice, the Riesling's acidity cuts through the Shiraz weight and lifts the aromatic profile, producing a wine that is lighter on its feet than a single-variety McLaren Vale Shiraz would be.

Wines

The range is organised by sub-region rather than by variety, which means each bottle name carries a place before a grape.

The Lionheart of the Barossa Shiraz is the Barossa expression: dark plum, smoky blackberry, berry fruit, and a full body built on old-vine concentration. The fruit is deep and juicy, with a hint of spice and tannin that frames rather than dominates. It sits firmly within the Barossa's established Shiraz character but without the over-extracted heaviness that older-style regional wines could carry.

The Lion's Tooth McLaren Vale Shiraz Riesling is the most unconventional bottle in the range. A red wine blended with a white grape is unusual enough; doing it from McLaren Vale and entering it in the regional show is another step. The 2020 vintage beat nearly 800 wines to win the 2021 Bushing Monarch. The Riesling's role here is structural: it adds acid and aromatic lift to a grape and region that can run heavy, producing something that sits between Shiraz power and white-wine freshness.

Beyond these two, the range extends across all three sub-regions given the Eden Valley sourcing footprint, though confirmed tasting detail for Eden Valley-specific bottles is limited in current documentation.

In The Glass

The Lionheart of the Barossa Shiraz opens with smoky blackberry and dark plum, the kind of aromatic density that comes from warm-climate old-vine fruit. On the palate it is full-bodied and juicy, with layers of blackberry and dark plum backed by a spice note that runs through the mid-palate. The tannins are present but not sharp; the acidity keeps the weight from sitting flat. The finish is generous and dark-fruited, consistent with Barossa Shiraz at its straightforward best.

The Lion's Tooth Shiraz Riesling works differently. Where the Lionheart stays in one register, the Shiraz Riesling pushes in two directions at once: the Shiraz contributes depth and dark fruit while the Riesling keeps the wine lighter and lifts the aromatic profile upward. The Shiraz Riesling combines Shiraz and Riesling from McLaren Vale.

Across both bottles, Elena's philosophy of acidity and tannin over alcohol weight is audible: the wines have backbone, but they are not built for mass and density alone.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Lionheart of the Barossa Shiraz. It is the clearest single statement of what Dandelion does with Barossa old-vine fruit: dark plum, smoky blackberry, and deep spice on a full but structured body, rated 93 points Silver at the 2023 Halliday Wine Companion Awards. The tannins are firm without aggression, and the acidity is present enough to keep the wine alive on the finish. It is not a maximalist Barossa Shiraz; it has weight but also direction. Once you have that bottle, the 2020 Lion's Tooth McLaren Vale Shiraz Riesling won the 2021 McLaren Vale Bushing Monarch and was the highest-scoring wine from nearly 800 entries.

Anecdote

Elena Brooks was sixteen when she decided to make her first Chardonnay. Her mother worked at a local winery in Bulgaria, and Elena had spent years there as a child, sitting in on barrel tastings and interpreting between the winemakers and the outside world. When she set out to make her own wine, she had no proper filtration equipment. She used her mother's pantyhose as a filter instead. The wine got made. She moved eventually to Australia, co-founded Dandelion Vineyards in McLaren Vale with Zar Brooks, and built a range that draws old-vine Shiraz from the Barossa and covers three South Australian sub-regions. The pantyhose filter and the Bushing Monarch are twenty-five years apart and connected by the same instinct.

Final Word

Dandelion Vineyards is a South Australian producer worth following if you want to understand what three different sub-regions do to the same founding philosophy. Elena Brooks' insistence on acidity and tannin over fruit weight is not an abstract position; it shows up in every bottle as something you can taste. The Lionheart of the Barossa gives you the clearest version of that position. The Lion's Tooth Shiraz Riesling gives you the most surprising one.

Sources

Open Dandelion Vineyards in the interactive map →