Tintara is one of Australia’s oldest wineries founded in 1861 by Dr. Alexander Kelly, a dynamic entrepreneur who made a daring investment in the fledgling South Australia wine region of McLaren Vale. Within a year, Dr. Kelly had planted 90 acres to vines. The Vale’s pioneer and his partners cheekily named the new venture Tinitinara, an aboriginal nickname for someone who loafs about the hut, later shortened to Tintara. The old stone winery is one of McLaren? Vale’s most historic landmarks.

In 1861 he published the seminal book ‘The Vine in Australia’ drawing on his and others’ experience in establishing vineyards in this hostile climate. It was in this same year that he purchased a property named Tintara in McLaren Vale.

Dr Alexander Kelly was presented with quite a challenge in taming the rugged, steep slopes of his McLaren Vale property to plant his vineyard, finally deciding to match the contours of the land, in terraced vineyard rows. In 1863, the first incarnation of the Tintara Cellars was born when Dr. Kelly built his cellars dug right into the hillside with fermentation tanks fabricated from slate quarried locally by Cornish miners.

Dr. Kelly’s plantings took place at a turning point in the history of McLaren Vale though, when the local flour mills and wheat fields were deserted and the barren ground was left to the vines. It was at this pivotal time that Thomas Hardy acquired the Tintara vineyards and brand from Dr. Kelly, sensing the great potential the region presented for quality wines.

And when the Mortlock Flour Mill fell idle on the Main Road of McLaren Vale, Thomas quickly bought and converted it to the Mill Cellars. The original cellar at "Tintara" was closed down in 1926 and winemaking, along with the name transferred to this converted winery.

In 1912 Thomas Hardy passed away, but his memory is honored by a monument erected by the townspeople of McLaren Vale in gratitude for his services to the district and to the wine industry.