Wirra Wirra Vineyards

At A Glance

Region: McLaren Vale, South Australia
Additional sourcing: Adelaide Hills (Lenswood, Piccadilly Valley, Lobethal)
Main grapes: Shiraz, Grenache, Chardonnay
Signature wine: The 12th Man Chardonnay
Farming: Certified biodynamic (NASAA, 2013)

The Producer

Wirra Wirra Vineyards sits in McLaren Vale, the warm-climate red wine country south of Adelaide, where Shiraz and Grenache have been grown since the nineteenth century. The estate was founded in 1894 by Robert Strangways Wigley, a cricketer who built a winery producing Shiraz exported to England and the Empire. When Wigley died in 1926, the property deteriorated and was eventually abandoned. In 1969, Greg Trott and his cousin Roger rebuilt it from the remnants of two walls and some slate fermenting tanks.

The house style Wirra Wirra has developed from that rebuilt base is classical, fresh and perfumed, holding the generous fruit of a Mediterranean climate within fresh aromatics rather than pushing toward concentration. The estate holds James Halliday 5-star winery status and a Star Cellar Door award from Gourmet Traveller Wine Magazine.

Place

McLaren Vale runs between the Mount Lofty Ranges and the Gulf St Vincent, where warm days and sea breezes from the gulf keep the growing season from tipping into excess heat. Shiraz and Grenache thrive here in the warmth, producing generous, fruit-forward wines.

Wirra Wirra sources fruit for its premium white wines from Adelaide Hills, the cooler, higher-altitude region inland of McLaren Vale. The 12th Man Chardonnay draws from vineyards in Lenswood, Piccadilly Valley and Lobethal, sites that sit high enough to give Chardonnay the cool growing season and bright acidity the variety needs for complexity and ageing potential. The two regions serve different purposes in the range.

Soil And Site

The estate vineyard blocks in McLaren Vale carry names tied to their history: Bell Tower, Nocowie, Chook Block, the '73 Block, Woodhenge and House Block. These are the parcels that supply the red wine range, farmed under biodynamic management since NASAA certification arrived in 2013. Biodynamic farming eliminates synthetic treatments and works the soil to encourage vine root depth and microbial activity, practices that suit the estate's commitment to site expression over corrective intervention.

The Adelaide Hills vineyard sites are cooler and sit at higher elevations, with the different climate giving Chardonnay the slower, longer ripening that preserves acidity and aromatic detail.

Story

Robert Strangways Wigley built the original winery in 1894 and ran it for three decades, shipping Shiraz to England and across the Empire. His death in 1926 ended that operation, and the winery fell apart over the following decades.

Greg Trott's decision to rebuild in 1969 was not restoration of a grand ruin but construction from almost nothing. Two walls and some old slate tanks were what remained. The Church Block wine, a Grenache and Shiraz blend that debuted in 1972, became the estate's commercial foundation and its first signal that McLaren Vale could produce wines worth exporting again.

The estate's more recent direction has turned toward cool-climate white wine. Sourcing Chardonnay from Adelaide Hills rather than from the warmer valley floor was a deliberate step: it gave the range access to the kind of acidity that McLaren Vale's Mediterranean heat does not easily produce. NASAA biodynamic certification arrived in 2013, formalising a farming approach that had already been reshaping the estate vineyards. In August 2023, E&J Gallo became the exclusive importer of the Wirra Wirra luxury portfolio in the United States, opening a distribution channel that matches the estate's ambition for the fine wine tier.

Vineyards And Cellar

All estate and managed vineyards carry NASAA biodynamic certification, achieved in 2013. The six named McLaren Vale blocks, Bell Tower, Nocowie, Chook Block, the '73 Block, Woodhenge and House Block, contribute fruit to the red wine range. Biodynamic management means the farming calendar follows natural rhythms and prohibits synthetic inputs, pushing the vines to root more deeply into the local soils.

The 12th Man Chardonnay is aged in French oak, which adds textural weight and spice to the fruit from the Adelaide Hills sites. The broader winery runs on renewable infrastructure: 400 solar panels cover the roof, installed as part of a refrigeration update completed in 2014, and the revegetation programme has planted approximately 5,200 native trees on the property.

Wines

The red wine range is built around McLaren Vale Shiraz and Grenache, with the estate blocks providing the fruit. Church Block, the Grenache and Shiraz blend that has been in the range since its 1972 debut, sits at the accessible end: fresh, fruit-forward and drinkable without extended cellaring, the everyday expression of the house style.

The 12th Man Chardonnay sits at the other end of the range in both origin and style. It comes from Adelaide Hills rather than the home valley, sourced from Lenswood, Piccadilly Valley and Lobethal vineyards, and aged in French oak. It is a white wine with the citrus brightness and mineral drive of cool-climate Chardonnay rather than the richer, warmer character that McLaren Vale itself would produce.

In The Glass

The red wines from the McLaren Vale blocks show the house's warm-climate warmth held within a fresh aromatic frame: generous dark fruit, plum and spice from the Grenache and Shiraz, with enough acidity and perfume to keep the wines from feeling heavy. Church Block reads as the cleaner, more accessible expression of that register, with the fruit upfront and the finish shorter.

The 12th Man Chardonnay moves in a different direction entirely. The Adelaide Hills sites give it citrus, white peach and nectarine on the nose, with French oak adding a creamy texture and gentle spice. The acidity from Lenswood, Piccadilly Valley and Lobethal keeps the wine dry and long, with the finish carrying mineral detail rather than simply trailing off in warmth. The 2024 vintage was awarded Best in Show and 97 points at the 2025 Decanter World Wine Awards.

A Bottle To Understand It

Choose The 12th Man Chardonnay. It is Chardonnay from three Adelaide Hills sites, Lenswood, Piccadilly Valley and Lobethal, aged in French oak and built for cool-climate character rather than McLaren Vale warmth. The nose delivers citrus and white stone fruit with a light oak spice underneath. In the mouth, the acidity runs firm and clean through the mid-palate, with a finish that extends on mineral and citrus notes. This is where Wirra Wirra has pushed farthest from the warm-valley character McLaren Vale produces, and the bottle shows what that commitment produces.

Anecdote

In 1969, Greg Trott and his cousin Roger drove out to a McLaren Vale address where a winery had once stood. What they found was two stone walls and some old slate fermenting tanks, the surviving evidence of Robert Strangways Wigley's nineteenth-century operation, which had been idle for more than forty years. Rather than treat the remains as a historical curiosity, the Trotts rebuilt from them. Three years later, in 1972, the estate released Church Block, a Grenache and Shiraz blend, as its first wine under the rebuilt operation. The bottle became the commercial spine of everything that followed.

Final Word

Wirra Wirra is a McLaren Vale estate with a biodynamic-farmed home base and a cool-climate Chardonnay programme sourced from Adelaide Hills, producing a range that runs from warm-valley Grenache and Shiraz to award-winning white wine from the mountains above the valley floor.

At A Glance

The Producer

Place

Soil And Site

Story

Vineyards And Cellar

Wines

In The Glass

A Bottle To Understand It

Anecdote

Final Word

Sources

Where to go next