Clarendon Hills

Clarendon Hills is the work of Roman Bratasiuk, one of the most influential figures in modern Australian wine. Since 1990, he’s built the label around a single idea: that old-vine, single-vineyard wines - especially Shiraz - could rival the greats of the world.

Working out of the elevated northern reaches of McLaren Vale, Bratasiuk was among the first to treat dry-grown bush vines with the same focus and intent as Grand Cru Burgundy. Clarendon Hills was built off small parcels of fruit from low-yielding sites, made with minimal intervention and bottled vineyard by vineyard, clone by clone.

Clarendon Hills’ flagship is Astralis, a cult Shiraz sourced from 1920s-planted vines on a steep, south-facing slope in Blewitt Springs. It’s a wine that changed the conversation about Australian Shiraz - dense, structured, and age-worthy.

But Astralis is just the tip of the iceberg. The broader Clarendon Hills range - featuring sites like Brookman, Sandown and Liandra - offers a detailed map of McLaren Vale’s varied terroir, with single-vineyard bottlings of Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre, and Cabernet Sauvignon that have stood the test of time.

These are unapologetically powerful wines, built for the long haul but shaped with precision. Oak is used confidently, never carelessly. Tannins are firm but polished. And while the style leans rich, there’s always definition and drive behind the fruit.

Clarendon Hills remains a benchmark for South Australian red wine - ambitious, deeply expressive, and still one of the clearest arguments for the greatness of site-specific Australian Shiraz.

"Today, with his son Alex by his side, the wines still embody the raw and rugged mineral power of the sites and philosophy, but there is a growing finesse, a refinement of delivery that is ever increasing, making this both an established star and one very much on the move."
- Halliday Wine Companion Top 100 Wineries