The big beautiful Barossa Valley
Written by Campbell Mattinson, Winefront Editor
The Barossa Valley today is an in-form prize-fighter knocking out great wines that compete with all-comers at all prices in all the great wine markets of the world. Whether it be Jacob’s Creek or Penfolds Grange, Peter Lehmann shiraz or Rockford Basket Press, the Barossa is the home of them all. As a region, it’s been knocked down a few times – during the anti-German sentiment of the first world war, during the Great Depression, during the early 1980s when a lack of respect for the area’s cuddly champion, the shiraz grape, held sway (even going so far as to have some of its beautifully ancient shiraz and grenache vines set on fire) – but it’s always got straight up and fought it’s way back to the top.
It’s done so because the Barossa, the hot inland valley 80 kilometres north-east of Adelaide with the swaying dried grasses and the Lutheran-influenced people who live there, has got ticker. If there’s a problem, the community joins forces and fixes it. It re-invents itself. It’s why people now describe it as the big red heart of Australian wine, as the place that not only pumps blood-rich wines to the furthest arteries of the wine drinking world, but that holds Australia’s wine industry fortunes in its soil-smeared hands. Penfolds, Wolf Blass, Yalumba, Seppelt, Orlando, Saltram – all have winemaking headquarters here. If the Barossa ever suffers heart failure, pain would be felt down the left-hand side of the entire Australian wine industry.
Luckily, then, the Barossa is in winning form – indeed, from a world perspective, it has never had so many fans.
The reason the Barossa Valley now has so many fans has a simple side: it produces red wines that are honest, rich, and smooth-textured, with a huge hook of flavour from go to whoa – at a time when big, red, black-fruited wines are greatly valued. The larger the world’s wine-drinking community becomes, and the more a better-educated wine public equates wine quality with concentration of fruit flavour, the greater the Barossa’s popularity. The fact that warmth – blasted into the wines via the downright heat of most Barossan summers – sluices through the Barossa’s red wines, carrying with it the seductive sweetness of ripeness and high alcohol – does nothing to harm any of this (or as Michael Twelftree of the new Two Hands winery says: “Europe would kill for our levels of ripeness. The whole wine-drinking world is craving fruit purity, ripeness, and good structure – and that’s exactly what places like the Barossa is giving it”).
The other weapon that the Barossa wields masterfully is less tangible, but no less powerful: the Barossa Valley has a story, and a good story sells wine almost better than anything else – especially when that story stacks up against the great wine stories of the world.
More than that: the Barossa’s story isn’t just words – it clubs you in the face any time you drive through it. It’s a story of tradition – vines that are so old (some date back 150 years) and independent that they grow as stumpy, grumpy, stand-alone bushes rather than as trellised slaves; winemaking processes that value those vines and the grapes they produce, heightening their softness and intensity at once; a community that (unusually) is largely divided between specialist winemakers/producers and specialist grapegrowers, meaning that large Barossan producers go about their business by dealing with hundreds of different grape-growers, all holding relatively small patches of land, giving the whole valley its patchwork rather than broadacre appearance; the fact that the Barossa Valley floor was settled in the 1830s and 40s largely by German and Silesian Lutherans, who brought with them an artisan approach to almost all aspects of life – an approach, as recent years have highlighted dramatically, that suits small vineyard, small batch winemaking perfectly – an approach that suits the making of great, individual, of-the-land wines.
In short, the Barossa’s story is long, traditional, and exquisitely individual. It’s dusty. Earthen. Conservatively exotic. It’s got street-cred – all of which, in the world of wine, is immensely prized. Wine drinkers, rightly or wrongly, tend to be suspicious of the new, and comforted by the old. This places the Barossa as a wine region in an enormously strong position – and obviously so. Drive through the valley and the story is writ large before you: the traditional German foods and buildings, the old, twisted vines, the way the vineyards dice the valley into a pattern of small, distinguished squares.
The only thing that can hold the Barossa back then, it seems, is complacency, and with more world attention on it than ever before (is it possible, in 2003, to write an overview of the Barossa Valley without mentioning the power-penned US wine critic Robert Parker Junior, who through the force of his reviews has driven – at auction – the price of some of the Barossa’s most orgasmic shiraz wines to 10 and 20 times their pre-Parker value?) it shows not a skerrick of complacency. As Bob McLean, best known for his long stint as owner of the Barossan winery St Hallett, now says, “what’s happening today is what’s always happened in the Barossa – people who’ve worked at the big successful companies are putting out their own wines, and as always, you better watch them. It’s been an exciting time over the past 15 years in the Barossa, and the 15 years before that, but it’s still exciting now, and I have no reason to think that things are going to do anything other than stay exciting. We’re at the top, and we’re going to stay that way.
“You see,” he continues, “the great thing about the Barossa is that we all listen and talk to one another. We all buried the hatchet in the mid 1980s, and while sometimes we leave the handle sticking out, most of the time it’s very good.”
The newcomers Bob McLean is referring to are almost too numerous to mention – which is a defining feature of the Barossa, particularly in a boom time like now (two hot spots at the moment are in the south around Lyndoch, where Burge Family Winemakers and Dutschke in particular are producing fabulous wines, and the Marananga/Seppeltsfield areas, where Two Hands, Torbreck, Barossa Valley Estate and Whistler have all recently set up cellar doors). With so many growers, and so many vineyards, there is an almost endless potential for new, small-batch wines to be produced – as prominent (in quality terms) new players like Torbreck Vintners, Two Hands, Hewitson, Dutschke, Gibson’s BarossaVale, Greenock Creek, Three Rivers (now simply called Chris Ringland, after its maker), Mitolo, Mount Billy and Tin Shed prove. They are new names, but they are of the same cloth, utilising the same old vines – the old is built into the new. These new names will soon be joined by a raft of even newer brands/wines, made by people like John Duval (former maker of Penfolds Grange), Peter Schell (Turkey Flat winemaker), and Dan Standish (Torbreck winemaker).
In fact, there are bound to be even more new wines on the horizon – it’s the Barossan way. No parcel of grapes is too small. No number of bottles too limited. If anyone ever works out a way to produce a single vine wine, it will come from the Barossa.
Which, according to Bob McLean, is exactly as it should be. “The Barossa helped teach the world to love Australian wine. Then it taught it about varieties, and taught it to love chardonnay and shiraz. Now we need to teach the world geography, about where our regions actually are – and when we do that we then have a chance to show the world what the Barossa can really do, by identifying small parts of vineyards that are really special, and making them into single vineyard wines. We’ve got the vineyard pockets, we’ve got the contours in our land, we’ve got 500 or so growers and over 100 years of growing and making wine here that we’ve learnt from – we have everything to make great, single vineyard wines, and they are the next step. People like Robert O’Callaghan at Rockfords and Charles Melton were ahead of their time.”
If it isn’t abundantly clear, what the Barossa Valley does best is make great shiraz, though in recent years other red varieties like grenache and mourvedre (particularly off old vines) have been revived and celebrated, usually in grenache/shiraz/mourvedre blends – lead notably by modern pioneer Charles Melton. Cabernet sauvignon also performs well in the Barossa, though in a dry, beefy style, a style which cabernet purists may not appreciate (it can lack the elegant varietal leafiness of ‘true’ cabernet), but which clearly has its own legitimacy and, in cases like Seppelt Dorrien and Saltram Mamre Brook, can age beautifully.
There are white wines made in the Barossa too, and they are made well, generally in a wooded style – chardonnay and semillon most commonly. While Peter Lehmann and the Willow Vineyard have been known to put out exceptional semillon, generally these varieties are good to very good quaffers at keen prices, with few wines ever reaching exceptional class. When you’re putting out some of the best shiraz-based wines in the world, it hardly matters.
Nor does the fact that there are so many new brands coming out of the area – at all ends of the market. It’s not all that long ago that a new water pipeline made its way to the Barossa, opening up large areas to vines that had never really seen much wine activity in the past (principally in the Gomersal area) – opening up the Barossa to the production of irrigated, cheap reds created to take advantage of the Barossa name. It’s the challenge the Barossa now faces, the challenge to maintain its quality image in the face of newer, corporate interests – the challenge to keep itself on its toes. While some people in the Barossa think that all these new brands and new wines are a threat to the Barossa’s story – and potentially they are correct – it’s also fair to say that the Barossa has always been built on constant-change-on-the-back-of-tradition. Or, as Dave Powell, the man behind Torbreck Vintners, says: “When I set up Torbeck there were a lot of people who probably didn’t want me to do too well. But the thing you have to remember is that Torbreck is proudly Barossan, and proudly Australian. And it’s worth saying that no matter what your angle on Torbreck is, the reputation of the Barossa internationally has been enhanced by us being here.”
Chances are a lot of the current activity in the Barossa will also end up doing just that. It’s part of the grand renewal that the traditional Barossa constantly undergoes, in order to keep itself fit. In order to keep itself great.
Best cellar doors:
Barossa Valley Estate:
A new big cellar door on the road to Seppelt, it caused a fair stir in its construction and it is a touch on the cold and impersonal side, but it’s no doubt worth a visit. The wines are good, and the outlook is one of the best in the valley. Seppeltsfield Road, Marananga. Phone (08) 8563 3980.
Bethany Wines:
In many ways the perfect Barossan cellar door, with a quaint outlook along a sweep of old vines, with all the dried grass, green vines and shows of Barossan earth colours laid out before you. The rieslings can also be particularly good. Bethany Road, Tanunda. Phone (08) 8563 2086.
Burge Family Winemakers:
Rick Burge makes beautiful wines across a range of styles (look specifically for his outstanding Garnacha, and Draycott Shiraz), though it’s mostly his red wines that tend towards the sublime. Match this with an attractive, small-ish, welcoming tasting area, and you have a winner. One of the area’s very best. Barossa Valley Way, Lyndoch. Phone (08) 8524 4644.
Charles Cimicky:
Good value wines served in top-class glassware, all amid seriously charming surrounds. When the wines are on song, they are seriously good value. Gomersal Road, Lyndoch. Phone (08) 8524 4025.
Charles Melton:
A trip to the Barossa is hardly complete without a visit to this wonderful winery and cellar door. The wines (all red) are top class, as is the outlook onto the vineyard. One of the Barossa’s, and Australia’s, best cellar doors. Krondorf Road, Tanunda. Phone (08) 8563 3606.
Grant Burge:
There’s such a wide range of wines available here, from such a wide range of Barossan vineyard sites, that if you really want to get a handle on what you like from which parts of the valley, here’s the best place to find out. It’s a gem. And the grand architecture of the place is perfectly Barossan. Barossa Valley Way, Jacobs Creek. Phone (08) 8563 7400.
Kaesler Wines:
On the main drag between Tanunda and Nuriootpa, Kaeslar is a winery on the rise, with an excellent new cellar door and a high-standard range of wines to match. They also happen to own some of the Barossa’s best old vineyards, one of which is nestled beside the cellar door. Barossa Valley Way, Nuriootpa. Phone (08) 8562 2711.
Kies Family Wines:
A small affair in the region’s south, the reasonably priced wines can be very good, with (among other things) a sweet red on offer that’s unlike just about any red wine that you’ve ever tasted. Barossa Valley Way, Lyndoch. Phone (08) 8524 4110.
Peter Lehmann Wines:
It’s a big enough cellar door to cope with a great many visitors, but the cool, beautifully managed gardens, the art gallery at the rear of the tasting area, and the long tasting bench itself all contribute to a grand experience. The wines speak for themselves. Para Road, Tanunda. Phone (08) 8563 2500.
Jacob’s Creek Visitors Centre:
It’s blisteringly new and not-a-little intimidating, but it’s also an excellent place to learn about various styles of Barossan wine. ‘Wine Flights’ give you the chance to taste a range of wines, side-by-side. Barossa Valley Way, Rowland Flat. Phone (08) 8521 3000.
Penfolds:
It’s not a great cellar door, but it is the Barossa’s most famous producer, which makes it irresistible. There’s an extensive selection of wines for sale and a good range of wines to taste, and usually the odd ‘cellar door only’ wine too. Tanunda Road, Nuriootpa. Phone (08) 8568 9389.
Rockford:
It’s only been around 20 years (remarkably) but from day one it’s managed to capture the history and tradition of the Barossa better than almost anyone. Tasting Rockford’s best wines is now difficult due to the overwhelming demand, but it’s still an essential stop-off, if only to view the historic set-up. Krondorf Road, Tanunda. Phone (08) 8563 2729.
St Hallett:
It’s rustic and charming, and usually has a good range of wines available for tasting, often including the odd back vintage. It’s a very good cellar door. St Halletts Road, Tanunda. Phone (08) 8563 7000.
Two Hands:
It’s due to open any minute now and it’s entirely worth visiting, with it’s range of excellent wine open for tasting – plus some special ‘cellar door only’ wines. Looks likely to become one of the ‘must visit’ cellar doors of the region. Neldner Road, Marananga. Phone number pending.
Saltram:
As a winery it’s one of the true legends of the Barossa, and in recent years the wines themselves have returned to their rightful place amongst the region’s very best (at all price levels). The tasting area has also been recently, and successfully, refurbished. Nuriootpa Road, Angaston. Phone (08) 8564 3355.
Seppelt:
A great place for a picnic on a warm-ish day, what with its large expanse of manicured gardens and all. Fascinating tours of the winery’s historic cellars are offered at regular intervals throughout each day, and although the tasting room is enormous (as is the range of wines), the standard and breadth of wine on offer is astonishing (much of it sourced from outside the Barossa). A place that every wine lover should visit at least once. Seppeltsfield Road, Seppeltsfield. Phone (08) 8568 6200.
Richmond Grove:
As a brand it never puts a foot wrong, with an excellent range of affordable wines. For this reason alone the cellar door is worth visiting, though like so many places in the Barossa – it’s a grandly evocative building. Para Road, Tanunda. Phone (08) 8563 2204.
Gibson’s BarossaVale:
It’s only been open a few months but it’s a delight, with a solid range of (mostly) reds on tasting, all put together by Rob Gibson, who for many years was a leading viticulturalist at Penfolds. Good, ripe, solid wines in an inviting setting. Willows Road, Light Pass. Phone (08) 8562 3193.
Torbreck:
It’s a new cellar door and it’s a ripper. Set in an old small cottage, the tasting area is tiny but the range of wines is superb, even if you have to pay $5 for the privilege (understandably really, considering that a number of the wines for tasting sell for $120 plus). There are cheaper wines too, and tasting the range is a great experience. Roennfeldt Road, Marananga. Phone (08) 8562 4155.
The Willows Vineyard:
In all the hype surrounding the Barossa’s most lauded (shiraz) wines it can easily be forgotten that the Barossa is still a great producer of reasonably priced wine – and here’s proof. Excellent semillon and shiraz in particular, at very reasonable prices. Light Pass Road, Light Pass. Phone (08) 8562 1080.
Turkey Flat Vineyards:
They own some of the world’s oldest shiraz vines, make a range of excellent wines, don’t charge the earth for them – in short, they are a winery to be supported. One of the new (the vines are old, but the brand didn’t kick off till 1990) heroes of the region. Bethany Road, Tanunda. Phone (08) 8563 2851.
Veritas Winery:
It’s an eclectic bunch of full-flavoured wines, the likes of which could only be produced in the Barossa. Worth a visit on those grounds alone – and the top-end wines are profound. Seppeltsfield Road, Dorrien. Phone (08) 8562 3300.
Best wines:
In a region like the Barossa, with such a wealth of great resources, any list of the region’s best wines is bound to be limited – there are many more excellent wines produced in the Barossa than are listed here. Listed here though is a fair, if not entirely comprehensive, guide:
Penfolds Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz (A$25): Good value, proudly Barossan shiraz wine, sourced from a wide variety of Barossan vineyards. It’s wines like this that have set the tone, and the standard, for the modern Barossan renaissance. Phone (08) 8568 9389.
Penfolds Grange (A$395) and Penfolds St Henri ($60): Opposing styles (Grange is lavishly oaked, St Henri only minorly so) but in most years they sit at or near the very top of the wine quality tree. Length, balance, fruity purity and superb cellaring ability, they’ve got it all. St Henri is a personal favourite - I just wish they'd make it with entirely Barossan grapes.
Rockford Basket Press Shiraz (A$55): It can be difficult to get ahold of, but this is the Barossa in all its traditional glory – structured, fruit-driven, built to age and touched, but not lavished, by oak. Phone (08) 8563 2729.
The Willows Vineyard Semillon ($18): You don’t hear a lot about Barossan semillon but The Willows produce the odd belter – especially of late. Both it and the shiraz are regional bargains. Phone (08) 8562 1080.
Peter Lehmann Stonewall Shiraz ($80): It underwent a fairly rapid style change (from American-oak matured to French-oak matured) through the mid-late 1990s, but throughout it maintained a true blessing of deep, powerful, tremendously smooth black fruit. A contender, along with Grange, as the area’s best shiraz. Phone (08) 8563 2500.
Saltram Mamre Brook Cabernet Sauvignon ($22): When you see this wine discounted to under $20, you’re seeing one of the great Australian wine bargains. It’s Saltram’s top cabernet wine, it cellars beautifully, and the display of fruit power is seriously impressive. Phone (08) 8564 3355.
Saltram No 1 Shiraz ($60): A wine and a winery in superb form, this is structured and yet intense, with assertive oak and the depth of rampaging oak to match. A wine that will cellar long-term with ease.
Dutschke Oscar Semmler Shiraz ($35): Wayne Dutschke is a lovely bloke who makes lovely shiraz, as he’s consistently proven over recent years. The label Dutschke has only been around since 1997, but the vines he uses are mature and the resultant wines powerful, blackfruited, and supple. (08) 8524 5485.
Charles Melton Nine Popes ($42): The entire Charles Melton range is top class but the Nine Popes is excellent, and historically significant – it re-ignited enthusiasm in grenache/shiraz/mourvedre blends, as made famous by Chareauneuf-de-Pape. It’s a spicy, gamey, perfumed wine of great character. Phone (08) 8563 3606.
Turkey Flat shiraz ($37): Old vines, a gentle hand in the winery and a commitment to producing flavoursome, pure-hearted wine is the recipe behind this beauty – it’s one of the more reliable vintage-to-vintage wines in the country. Phone (08) 8563 2851.
Elderton Command Shiraz ($80): A big, thick, serious wine made every inch in the modern Barossan shiraz style, with concentrated black fruit and a shot of sweet, syrupy, cedary oak. Phone (08) 8562 1058.
Grant Burge Filsell Shiraz ($28): Grant Burge makes many excellent wines at various prices, but the Filsell strikes an excellent balance between intense, varietal, uncompromising wine quality and value-for-money. Good berry fruit, good oak, good wine – and an affordable alternative to Burge’s outstandingly concentrated Meshach Shiraz. Phone (08) 8563 7400.
Heritage Rossco’s Shiraz ($45): A small producer of powerful wines, as typified by this invariably excellent, black-fruited wine. It’s not cheap, but it’s nowhere near as expensive as it could be. Phone (08) 8562 2880.
Langmeil Shiraz ($60): In both its guises (Valley Floor and ‘The Freedom’), Langmeil shiraz is firm and bold, with plum and blackberry flavours strapped to toasty, fine-grained oak. Both wines can be exceptional. Phone (08) 8563 2595.
Gibson’s BarossaVale Shiraz ($69): A newcomer to the region but with long-time winegrower Rob Gibson at the helm (formerly Penfolds), this wine is a perfumed bloom of blue and black fruit, with caramelised sweet-oak flavours rippling throughout. Phone (08) 8562 3193.
St Hallett Old Block Shiraz ($55): Big, black and silky smooth, this is one of the easiest-to-drink of the Barossan super-premiums – it’s delicious. Phone (08) 8563 7000.
Seppelt Dorrien Cabernet Sauvignon ($50): Cabernet from the Barossa is generally a rich, chocolate-tipped wine that lacks nothing in weight and power but can be in need of both finesse and varietal clarity. Seppelt Dorrien, especially once it’s been aged for 8-10 years, somehow overcomes such problems – to rival all but the very best cabernets in the country. Phone (08) 8568 6200.
Yalumba Barossa Shiraz ($16) and Octavius Shiraz ($80): The standard Barossa shiraz is a beauty, now with a dab of viognier added (if anyone’s got good viognier at hand, it’s Yalumba) and drinking beautifully for it. The Octavius crawls with toasty oak, but the fruit quality is bell-clear. Phone (08) 8561 3200.
Where to eat:
The Barossa has a great history of food and wine and of all Australian wine regions, it’s food and produce is the best organised, especially with the advent of Food Barossa (www.foodbarossa.com), which not only markets and links most of the best producers but guarantees strict health, regional and traditional standards. The restaurant scene is perhaps less vibrant, but there’s still plenty to keep you satisfied.
Two restaurants stand out – for dinner, the newly refurbished Vintners Bar and Grill Restaurant (08 8564 2488) is a great favourite and pretty much hard to beat, with a hearty range of red wine-friendly dishes and a good list of Barossan wines (and they also allow BYO). The other is Seasons of the Valley (in Washington Street, Angaston. Ph 08 8564 3688) which, for lunch, can produce strikingly good food, most of it made on-premise using local ingredients (it’s a favourite of many local winemakers). Until recently Seasons was far and away your best lunch-time eating option anywhere in the valley, but in the past 12 months it’s come under pressure from Salters at the Saltram Winery (Nuriootpa Road, Angaston. 08 8564 3355), which offers a high-standard range of casual dishes, wood-fired pizzas among them (wines bought at the Saltram cellar door can also be enjoyed at the restaurant).
This isn’t forgetting the 1918 Bistro and Grill (at 94 Murray Street, Tanunda. 08 8563 0229), which although of variable quality over recent years is still a worthy Barossan experience, while more casual eateries like Maggie Beer’s Farm Shop (Pheasant Farm Road, Nuriootpa. 08 8562 4477) – which is a beautifully tranquil place to spend time – and the South Australian Country Kitchen (Valley Road, Angaston. 08 8564 2725) are both exceptionally easy to recommend (the SA kitchen serves arguably the best coffee in the valley).
If you prefer to eat at a winery restaurant, Salters (at the Saltram winery) is your best bet, though Yaldara Café Y (Hermann Thumm Drive, Lyndoch. Ph 08 8524 0225) has its moments, and all of Kabminye Wines (Krondorf Road, Tanunda. 08 8562 1456), Miranda Family Winemakers (Barossa Valley Way, Rowland Flat. Ph 8524 4537), the Jacob’s Creek Visitor Centre (Barossa Valley Highway, Rowland Flat. Ph 08 8521 3000), Kaesler (Phone 08 8562 2711), Barossa Vines (Krondorf Road, Tanunda. Phone 08 8563 7675), and Craneford Wines (Moorundie Street, Truro. Phone 08 8564 0003), all serve meals, mostly lunch only – it’s advisable to phone ahead.
The are also a number of wineries who serve tea/coffee and platters, Peter Lehmann (08 8563 2100) and Gnadenfrei Estate (08 8562 2522) the best of them, though all of Barossa Valley Estate (08 8562 3599), Hamilton Ewell Vineyards (08 8562 4600) and Schild Estate (08 8524 5560) provide more than adequate offerings.
Barossa Valley produce
The Barossa valley is a lot more than wine – it’s a great, proud, traditional, often German-inspired centre of fine produce, and in this sense it’s as alive as it ever has been. Like with its wine, any summary of where and what foods you can find in the Barossa is only ever a summary, such is the wealth of goods on offer. Here are a few places to look:
The Apex Bakery (Elizabeth Street, Tanunda. Ph 08 8563 2483) has been baking great breads and (among other things) a range of terrific German slices for over 75 years, and it shows no signs of slowing down. Every trip to the Barossa should include a stop-off at the Apex.
The same applies to Linke’s Bakery and Tearoom (40 Murray Street, Nuriootpa. Phone 08 8562 1129), which has been baking breads for three generations and has a wide selection on offer.
The Barossa, with its German heritage, is a wonderful source of traditional smoked and cured meats (many Barossan butchers operate their own smokehouses), so much so that it’s not unusual for lovers of the Barossa to fiercely debate who makes ‘the best bacon in the Barossa’. The main contenders are Linke’s Central Meat Store (27 Murray Street, Nuriootpa. Ph 08 8562 1143) and Schulz Butchers (42 Murray Street, Angaston. Ph 08 8564 2145), while for other assorted meats (including another speciality, Mettwurst) Lyndoch Valley Meats (38 Barossa Valley Highway, Lyndoch. Ph 08 8524 4078), Steiny’s Traditional Mettwurst (9 Barossa Valley Way, Tanunda. Ph 08 8563 3098), and Die Barossa Wursthaus (86A Murray Street, Nuriootpa. Phone 08 8563 3598) are also leaders at what they do.
The best way to get among the best produce that the Barossa has to offer though, without doubt, is by visiting the Barossa Farmers’ Market, which has gone from strength to strength over the past year. It’s held each Saturday from 7.30am to 11.30am in the sheds behind Vintners Restaurant, with stalls selling Hutton Vale lamb, dried fruits, organically grown vegetables, Ballycroft Artisanal Cheese, Matthew Waechter’s ducks, Saskia Beer’s Barossa Farm produce, condiments galore and various breads and cakes. It’s a beauty, and worth organising your travel plans around.
Other places of note include: the Maggie Beer Farm Shop, the Barossa Valley Cheese Company, Wiech’s Egg Noodles (widely used and available around the Barossa, ph 08 8563 3004), the South Australian Company Store, and Angaston Olive Oil (54 North Street, Angaston. Ph 0418 827 706).
Where to stay
The Barossa is the spiritual home of the bed and breakfast – they’re everywhere throughout the valley. A great many – arguably too many – of them are based around a theme of antique furniture, but the standard is also generally very high. An easy way to find a thorough list of what’s available is via the Barossa Wine and Tourism Association (68 Murray Street, Tanunda. Ph 08 8563 0600), which produces a free fold-out guide/map listing most wineries, attractions and accommodation.
While a small self-contained cottage is arguably the best way to experience the Barossa, the large resort-style Novotel Barossa (Golf Links Road, Rowland Flat. Ph 08 8524 0000) isn’t bad either, complete with a charming open-air pool – and next door to the golf course. Peppers Hermitage (Seppeltsfield Road, Marananga. Ph 08 8562 2722) overlooking the famous Stonewell vineyard is also excellent, complete with a swag of 5-star suites and a restaurant that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Other top-class places to stay include the Lodge Country House (Seppeltsfield Road, Seppeltsfield. Ph 08 8562 8277), Marble Lodge (21 Dean Street, Angaston. Ph 08 8564 2478), Caithness Manor (12 Hill Street, Angaston. Ph 08 8564 2761), Whirlwind Farm (Samuel Road, Nuriootpa. Ph 08 8562 2637), Stonewell Cottages (Stonewell Road, Tanunda. Ph 08 8563 2019), Jewell of the Valley (1 Elizabeth Street, Tanunda. Phone 1800 227 677), Treetops (Seppeltsfield Road, Marananga. Ph 08 8562 2522), and Country Pleasures (56 Penrice Road, Angaston. Ph 0438 643 477) – but there are many more.
If you’re looking for something more affordable, Barossa Gateway Motor Inn (Kalimna Road, Nuriootpa. Ph 08 8562 1033), Barossa Motor Lodge (182 Murray Street, Tanunda. Ph 08 8563 2988) and The Vineyards Motel (Stockwell Road, Angaston. Phone 08 8564 2404) are the go.
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Rockford
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Penfolds Grange
Hewitson
Two Hands