The Riesling Trail in South Australia's Famous Clare Valley

Like wine? and like riding your bike? Or perhaps you just like drinking wine and not having to drive a car. Whatever the reason you've ended up here we think the Riesling Trail has a little something to offer everyone. This post goes over our Riesling trail cycling itinerary along with the wineries we visited, the food we ate and the wine we bought! 

The trail is 35 km and runs from Auburn to Clare (or vice versa). It passes by a lot of great vineyards and wineries and passes through some beautiful countryside. Depending on the winery that you visit they may or may not charge for a tasting (usually around 5 wines). If they do charge, then they'll usually take the amount off any bottles of wine that you purchase.

Now we won't pretend that we're super knowledgeable about wine so we won't delve into the details of everything we drank. However, someone who is super knowledgeable about wines is our friend Chloe from Crush at Social. You can find her blog post on the regions best wines here.

Note: If you didn't come prepared with your own bike don't stress, you're not alone. There are a few bike hire places in town. We'd suggest hitting the visitor information centre in Clare and getting some info there!

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Camping and Accomodation Options

First things first, you'll need somewhere to stay in the Clare Valley. There are plenty of Airbnb options available along the trail and in the towns it passes through. Or if you, like us, are camping then there are 2 good options that we checked out.

Option 1: Clare Discovery Park - this is your usual family-friendly campground with all the trimmings. At $30 a night for an unpowered site it isn't cheap, but it totally does the job! Its also located right across the road from the trail so is easy to get to and from. As a bonus, this means you can also drop your purchased wine bottles off during the day if necessary.

Option 2: Auburn Community Caravan Park - this is a great value park with clean amenities. At $8 per person it's pretty good value and the unpowered sites are nice and grassy. We'd stay here next time we visited for sure.

The Riesling Trail - Our Day on The Bikes

Our day begun with a visit to the Clare Visitors Centre.

Here we were able to get a map of the region, and the bike trail along with some helpful information and local knowledge. 

Day Overview:

• Clare Visitor Information Centre
• Shut The Gate Wine
• Clare Rise Bakery
• Tim Adams Wine
• Sevenhill Cellars

The 3 wineries we visited can be visited in under 10km of bike riding, making it an achievable itinerary for almost everyone.. 

Bonus Stop:

• Pikes Brewery & Winery

Shut The Gate Wines

Our first stop was just down the road from the visitors centre. Shut The Gate Wines offers free tastings, and has a small goods store with a selection of meats, cheese, olives etc - everything you need for a picnic.

We purchased some 2018 "The Forager" Shiraz for $28. It is delicious.

Clare Rise Bakery

After our tasting we headed to the local bakery, Clare Rise. The bakery was recommended to us by the crew from Shut the Gate, and we're glad because their vegetable pasty was delicious!

We also grabbed a Turkish loaf for lunch.

Next up we headed into the main shopping centre of Clare. We hit Woolworths for some more food and picnic supplies and then turned around to head back down the Riesling Trail.

Tim Adams Wines

Next up we headed to Tim Adams Wines. A tasting flight costs $10 per person and this $10 is taken off any money spent on wine (over a certain amount).

Worth noting is that they offer a wine and cheese tasting flight in which they match 5 artisan cheeses with 5 single vintage wines for $35 - this appeared to be pretty popular!

Here we splurged a little.
We bought 2 bottles, The 2016 Ladera Tempranillo ($40) and The Fergus, a blend of Grenache, Tempranillo and Malbec ($28). 

Sevenhill Cellars

Next up we headed to Sevenhill Cellars. this one had been recommended to us by a few people, not only for it's wine, but also for its history and setting. Sevenhill Cellars was the first winery in the Clare Valley and there is a stunning church on the grounds, surrounded by vines. It's a pretty beautiful place.

Here again the tasting flight costs $10, but this is taken off any wine you purchase.

We bought The Inigo 2018 Malbec for $28.

Reisling Trail Overview

To visit all 3 of the wineries we hit can involves less than 10km of riding, making this a day out that is accessible for all ages and skill levels.

Bike riding (or hiking or running) the Riesling Trail makes for an enjoyable day out for anyone, even for those not drinking. The scenery is spectacular, and during Spring in particular the flowers are absolutely gorgeous.

Here is the GPS of our days outing. It's longer due to our detour into Clare and a trip towards Auburn after visiting Sevenhill Cellars.

Pikes Brewery (and Winery)

Also worth a mention is Pikes Brewery. We visited here the day before our bike adventure and got a tasting paddle along with some hot chippies! The beer was great, we're told the wine is great and the setting is pretty special.