Jan 27 2008
Barossa Valley
South Australia, unspoilt, uncrowded, genuine and accessible is our premier wine country with more than 350 wineries and 290 cellar doors in 17 wine regions stretching from the Coonawarra to Port Lincoln. Almost 30 square kilometres are devoted entirely to vineyards and farming in this fertile region. The local grapes end up as some of the finest wines available, and the home of these lush grapes is the Barossa Valley.
It’s beautiful here. Like something from a nineteenth century landscape painting.
Barossa Valley
The Barossa is just an hour out of Adelaide, and the home of premium wines, fine foods, butchers, pastrycooks and confectioners.
German farmers, fleeing persecution in their homeland, found their way here in 1842, and the hardworking settlers soon outnumbered the English and the Scots. German remained the preferred language in the Valley for a long time. You still hear it in the food markets. The Barossa Valley feels German.
Vines were first planted in 1847 and within three years Johann Gramp had produced his Carte Blanche.
Wine, Dine and smell the roses
Today you can visit the real Jacobs Creek, the Wolf Blass Visitor Centre or call in at one of the cellar doors with wines like Seppelt, Peter Lehmann, Henschke, Yaldara and Yalumba.
Stroll through the grounds of Seppeltsfield, or Chateau Yaldara, and relax in the coolness of the magnificently restored Chateau Tanunda with its cricket oval and croquet lawn. Chateau Barossa produces more than fine wine, it boasts more than 20,000 rose bushes of more than 2000 varieties.
Lunch on brattwurst, spaetzle, dill-pickled cucumber and fresh baked breads, Berlin buns, streuselkuchen with its crumbly topping of spice and sugar, and bienenstich with caramel and almonds. Finish with Rote Grütze, a local dessert made with thickened shiraz grape juice, served with runny cream.
Take home some jam, crystallised fruits, noodles and pickled onions. Don’t forget the wine!
Like to shout me a cold beer?
