McLaren Vale is an attractive and historic town in the heart of one of South Australia's premier grape growing areas.
Located 39 km from Adelaide, McLaren Vale is a charming and substantial township surrounded by more than 40 vineyards and wineries. On every side there are fields of grapes and the signposts at various points are thick with invitations to visit cellar doors to sample the vintages and purchase the locally made wines.
It is now accepted that the town was named after David McLaren, the Colonial Manager of the South Australia Company, who arrived in the colony in 1837 and departed three years later. There is some dispute because some sources claim that town was named after a John McLaren who surveyed the area in 1839.
Until as recently as the 1920s McLaren Vale was applied to the region more than to the particular town and even today there is a feeling that the surrounding vineyards are really McLaren Vale vineyards even if they are some kilometres outside the town.
This is an area which has always been about grape growing. As early as 1850 the historic Hardy and Seaview wineries were in operation. It is widely accepted that Thomas Hardy's purchase of the Tintara vineyard in 1853 is the symbolic beginning of the town. Today the fundamental raison d'etre of the district has not changed.
