NA ="Riverton, Rhynie, Saddleworth, Navan, Hamilton, Marrabel, Giles Corner,";
FE1[0]=" The Clare Valley is one of Australia's most famous wine producing regions. It is made up of twelve separate valleys which all link to form one of the prettiest wine producing areas in Australia. An easy 90 minute drive from Adelai";
FE2[0]="de will bring you to Auburn, a proclaimed heritage town and other stone villages that line the Main North Road to Clare - Leasingham, Watervale, Penwortham, Sevenhill and a few kilometres to the east the historic town of Mintaro a";
FE3[0]="nd Polish Hill River. Scenically the Clare Valley offers magnificent gum-studded pastures, picturesque vineyards, rolling hills and steep sided valleys. The Riesling trail, a 27 km path that follows the old railway line between Au";
FE4[0]="burn and Clare, links the villages of the wine region and offers cyclists and walkers a kaleidoscope of varied and picturesque countryside. The region has three sub-regions that are yet to be officially registered. They are the ce";
FE5[0]="ntral Clare Valley that follows the Main North Road, the Skillogalee Valley that runs parallel to the west and the Polish Hill River area to the east. The consideration of sub-regions is an indication of the variations in temperat";
FE6[0]="ure range related to altitude and soil types varying from the yellow/red podsolic in the hills to the brown/black earths on the valley floor. Vineyards were first established in the valley in the mid 1800s. This early period saw t";
FE7[0]="he planting of Cabernet, Malbec and Shiraz. Some of the early pioneering names, Wendouree, Knappstein and Quelltaler are still in the valley. Today there is a mix of very large companies and a significant number of boutique wineri";
FE8[0]="es. The vineyards in the valley have reflected the changes in the wine market. Red varieties made way for port and sherry varieties during the 1940s and then as the table wine buzz returned in the 1950s white varieties were introd";
FE9[0]="uced with big plantings of Riesling followed by Chardonnay and to a lesser extent Semillon. Today the circle has fully turned. Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz are back with Shiraz in the ascendancy.";
LA1[0]=" Variation is the key word when describing the topography. The region contains valleys with altitudes ranging from 300 to over 500 metres. Varied soil types throughout the valleys are another feature, ranging from red to brown grey";
LA2[0]=" over basement rock. The vineyard soils vary from red-brown earth over limestone or slate to alluvial soils. The region, because of its undulating topography, also provides a variety of mesoclimates. The 'Clare Valley', whilst bei";
LA3[0]="ng a catchy marketing term, is in fact, incorrect. There is no single valley. There is a plateau corrugated by ridges that generally run in a north-south direction. The central feature of this plateau is Mount Horrocks (600 m). So";
LA4[0]="uth of Mount Horrocks there are three valleys: the Wakefield River, Eyre Creek, and the Skillogalee Creek, that join and flow west to Port Wakefield. Flowing north are the valleys of the Hill River and the Hutt River, that ultimat";
LA5[0]="ely flow into the Broughton and meet the sea at Port Davis (between Port Broughton and Port Pirie). Polish Hill River is located on the upper reaches of the Hill River. The soil at Polish Hill River is an acidic red-brown clayey-l";
LA6[0]="oam. In contrast to the Watervale sub-region to the south of Mount Horrocks, there is no limestone at Polish Hill River. Geologically the region is of ancient shale and an extension of the famous Mintaro slate. (The slate quarry a";
LA7[0]="t nearby Mintaro remains the only site in Australia where it is possible to obtain a sheet of slate large enough for a full-size billiard table). The topsoil is shallow, and the sub-soil is heavy red clay. The superficial shale is";
LA8[0]=" fissured, and decomposing. The fissures extend deep into hard blue shale. It is these deep fissures that the vine roots seek to go deep for water. The principal red varieties are Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz. The most important ";
LA9[0]="white variety is Riesling, with the Clare Valley regarded as its Australian home. The region's Rieslings have won national and international renown.";
CL1[0]=" The climate is moderately continental, with cool to cold nights and warm to hot summer days. Rainfall is predominantly in winter - spring (June - September) with an annual average of around 630 millimetres. Generally dry summers m";
CL2[0]="ake some irrigation desirable but also ensure a minimum of fungal diseases. Rainfall is around 635mm per annum with most of it falling in winter and spring. The valley sits at an altitude of 350-500m and this elevation offsets the";
CL3[0]=" expected heat of its northerly position. Summer nights are cool and are often accompanied by a sea breeze. The low humidity of the valley means that vineyards there have a lowered fungal disease risk. Polish Hill River is one of ";
CL4[0]="the higher parts of the 'Clare Valley', and most vineyards are above 400 m elevation. Rainfall (about 700 mm) is generally regarded to be higher than the three surrounding official weather stations at Clare, Watervale, and Mintaro";
CL5[0]=". Grapes from Polish Hill River ripen two to three weeks later than grapes from Watervale and Clare. The north-south running ridges provide shading that relieves the vines of Polish Hill River from the last 20 or 30 minutes of the";
CL6[0]=" harsh midsummer afternoon sun. Location: 33°50'S, 138°37'E; Annual rainfall: 630 mm; Mean January temp: 21.9°C; Sunshine hours per day: 9.3.";
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HI1[0]=" John Horrocks was the first settler in the region and encouraged his servant James Green to plant the first vines in 1842 at Penwortham. Edward Gleeson founded Clare in the 1840s and also planted the Inchiquin vineyards. The devel";
HI2[0]="opment of Clare, however, was uneven. Minerals provided the first surge in population: copper was discovered at Burra in 1845 and at Wallaroo and Moonta between 1859 and 1861. When the first flush of minerals was depleted, the whe";
HI3[0]="at boom started, creating great wealth in a short time. High-quality slate was discovered at Mintaro, and in 1885 the Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited was formed to mine silver at Broken Hill. Clare was the town through whi";
HI4[0]="ch much of the trade and the food (and the people) generated by these developments passed: it became known as The Hub of the North'. Some of the older vines are planted in the valley floor, originally to take advantage of the deep";
HI5[0]=" water holding capacity of the soils, as rainfall is relatively low. With the advantages of supplementary irrigation, many of the best vineyard sites are located on higher elevations or towards the south of the valley. Sevenhill p";
HI6[0]="lanted its first vines in 1852, those of Spring Vale (later to become Quelltaler) in 1853. By 1890 there were 100 hectares of vineyards, but expansion (at a rate reminiscent of the late 1960s in the Hunter Valley) lifted the area ";
HI7[0]="of vineyards by almost 500 per cent in the next seven years. By 1897 there were 580 hectares under vine, and in 1903 the Stanley Wine Company produced 450 000 litres of wine (mostly exported to London), the same quantity as Penfol";
HI8[0]="ds. The twentieth century slowed the rate of growth, and a number of the nineteenth-century wineries disappeared. The Stanley Wine Company and Quelltaler dominated production, but Sevenhill and Wendouree both continued to make and";
HI9[0]=" market wines to a small but appreciative market. The 1980s saw significant corporate investments and ownership changes.";