Why it matters
The producer
Elena Brooks grew up in the back rooms of a Bulgarian winery, where her mother worked. By twelve she was interpreting barrel tastings for the winemakers; by sixteen she was making her own wine. When she eventually came to South Australia and co-founded Dandelion Vineyards in McLaren Vale with Zar Brooks, she brought a philosophy formed well before she ever saw an Australian vineyard: that acidity, tannin, and aroma matter more than ripeness and alcohol weight.
Dandelion is based at 191 Chaffeys Road in McLaren Vale but is not a single-estate operation. Elena and Zar grow their own grapes and source old-vine fruit from three distinct South Australian sub-regions: Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale, and Eden Valley. The range keeps those regions separate rather than blending them into a house style. Each bottle carries a sub-region name rather than a South Australia-wide label, and the grape and style choices follow from what each place does well.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
McLaren Vale is a coastal wine region south of Adelaide, where the Gulf of St Vincent moderates temperatures and most of the wine is red. Shiraz is the dominant grape, and the best parcels combine old-vine age with soils that hold warmth without cooking the fruit. The Barossa Valley, further north and inland, is Australia's most established Shiraz address: a warm, continental climate that produces dark, full-bodied reds from vines that in some cases have been in the ground for well over a century. Eden Valley sits at higher elevation above the Barossa floor, where cooler conditions allow Riesling and higher-acid Shiraz to develop alongside the valley's heavier styles.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Farming across the Dandelion sourcing regions is a mix of conventional and organic practices, with the winery working toward Sustainable Winegrowing Australia certification. The emphasis on old vines is consistent: low yields concentrate flavour without requiring intervention in the cellar to compensate for thin fruit. Elena's philosophy deprioritises oak and alcohol as flavour drivers, which means the cellar work is oriented toward preserving what the parcels produce rather than adding texture or sweetness through wood.
The Lion's Tooth Shiraz Riesling is the most technically distinctive wine in the range. Co-fermenting or blending Shiraz with Riesling is a minor Australian tradition with roots in the Barossa, where early settlers sometimes grew the grapes alongside each other. In practice, the Riesling's acidity cuts through the Shiraz weight and lifts the aromatic profile, producing a wine that is lighter on its feet than a single-variety McLaren Vale Shiraz would be.
Wines to know
The range in view
The range is organised by sub-region rather than by variety, which means each bottle name carries a place before a grape.
The Lionheart of the Barossa Shiraz is the Barossa expression: dark plum, smoky blackberry, berry fruit, and a full body built on old-vine concentration. The fruit is deep and juicy, with a hint of spice and tannin that frames rather than dominates. It sits firmly within the Barossa's established Shiraz character but without the over-extracted heaviness that older-style regional wines could carry.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with the Lionheart of the Barossa Shiraz. It is the clearest single statement of what Dandelion does with Barossa old-vine fruit: dark plum, smoky blackberry, and deep spice on a full but structured body, rated 93 points Silver at the 2023 Halliday Wine Companion Awards. The tannins are firm without aggression, and the acidity is present enough to keep the wine alive on the finish. It is not a maximalist Barossa Shiraz; it has weight but also direction. Once you have that bottle, the 2020 Lion's Tooth McLaren Vale Shiraz Riesling won the 2021 McLaren Vale Bushing Monarch and was the highest-scoring wine from nearly 800 entries.