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Under the Sun Wine Collective officially opens this Friday, 6 February, inside an old barn on Old Coach Road in Aldinga, bringing together Poppelvej, Brash Higgins and Golden Child Wines under one shared roof. Organic, gradual, and built on friendship, it’s the kind of collaboration that makes immediate sense once you hear how it came about.
“We have James from Golden Child to thank,” Brash Higgins winemaker Brad Hickey told us previously. “He’d been looking for a space for years and asked Uffe from Poppelvej and myself if we were keen to join forces. When the Old Coach Road location opened up, James was Johnny-on-the-Spot and we grabbed it.”
Between them, the trio represent very different paths into wine. Uffe of Poppelvej is a former Danish wine buyer who moved to McLaren Vale and made his first Grenache in a garage. Brad Hickey, born in Chicago, worked his way through Paris, Portland and New York before landing in South Australia. James Hamilton of Golden Child honed his craft across Australia and California before launching his own label using fruit from his family’s Adelaide Hills vineyard.
Since Glam Adelaide last chatted with them, the Under the Sun crew have landed on a bold plan to draw a night-time crowd on weekends, shifting the space into a relaxed wine bar rather than a traditional cellar door or tasting room.
Over summer, Under the Sun will stay open until 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays, aimed at pre- and post-dinner crowds, while continuing to operate as a cellar door with tastings and bottle sales from Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 5pm.
“We didn’t want it to feel too curated or strict,” says Hickey. “If it feels like a serious tasting room, it can stop people coming in just for a glass.” You can treat the space however you like: taste across all three wineries, stick with one, grab a wine by the glass, or pick up a bottle to have with dinner.
After 5pm on weekend nights, tastings will pause and the space will shift fully into wine bar mode. “We’ll pull some corks, put on some music and see how the night unfolds,” Hickey says. “How late we stay open really depends on the vibe.”
That same easygoing approach is what brought the three wine labels together in the first place. At its core, the collaboration is driven by a shared philosophy.
“Golden Child wines are bright and fresh, drinkability is writ large on them. Poppelvej is more of a texture freak and makes some dazzling aromatic whites and lighter, wilder reds. Brash covers a lot of ground, making authentic, site specific wines from amphora, and an array of alternative, yet appropriate, grapes. All these wines have personality,” Hickey told us.
Across labels, pét-nats, rosé, whites, orange wines and a generous spread of reds are available, making it an ideal stop for the curious or indecisive or anyone keen to build a mixed case rather than commit to a single style. There will also be cellar-door-only releases, collaborations with winemaking friends, and deeper cellar treasures available for purchase. Importantly, the business model is shared.
“Under the Sun buys the wines from the winemakers, so we all share in the sale of each other’s wines,” Hickey explains. “It was a way to support each other without anyone becoming resentful if one label sold more than another.”
The space has been designed for lingering, with two older buildings, a tasting room and a revamped barn, sitting under a shared roof and centred around a small courtyard set back from Old Coach Road. Outside, pizza ovens and a spacious beer garden stretch beneath a towering gum tree, while inside and out there are couches, nooks and corners made for opening a bottle, sharing a cheese plate and losing track of time.
“There’s a massive wine geology map of the Vale that’s a big feature,” says Hickey. “And we commissioned local mural artist Ella Simpson to paint this colourful landscape of the sun and coast – it’s very catchy, and it’ll become iconic for Under the Sun.”
The fit-out was intentionally open, whitewashed and light, shaped by practicality as much as vision. The bar was built by Uffe’s father-in-law Gary Macarthur, while the crockery was handmade by his wife, ceramicist Nicole Deichmann.
Aldinga, Hickey says, was the obvious choice.
“It’s just the cutest town. It’s bustling,” he says. “You’ve got Little Rickshaw, Fall From Grace, Kickback Brewery, Rustic Thai, Goodness Coffee, Maxwell’s — and the pub’s solid. We wanted to be in the middle of the action, not out in the sticks. And close to the beach.”
The barn will soon host private tastings, long lunches, trade events and wine education sessions, with a well-used pool table already hinting at the space’s social future.
After a long build and a lot of hands-on work, the wait is almost over. Under the Sun Wine Collective opens to the public this Friday, 6 February, shining a light on a relaxed, generous side of McLaren Vale wine.
And in an old barn, under the South Australian sun, with charcuterie on the table and three best mates behind the bar, it feels like exactly the right setting.
Under the Sun Wine Collective
Where: 22 Old Coach Rd, Aldinga, South Australia
When: Set to open Friday 6 February
For the website, click here.
@underthesunwine
