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Barossa Valley

Introduction
Region Summary
Principal Wine Styles

Choose winery:   Select Option Balthazar of the Barossa Barossa Ridge Wine Estate Barossa Settlers BarossaVale Wines Basedow Bethany Wines Branson Wines Burge Family Winemakers Carrara Hill Wines Charles Cimicky Charles Melton Chateau Dorrien Chateau Tanunda Craneford Dorrien Estate Dutschke Wines Elderton Elysian Fields Glaetzer Wines Gnadenfrei Estate Grant Burge Greenock Creek Wines Haan Wines Hamilton's Ewell Vineyards Hamilton's Ewell Vineyards Hare's Chase Heritage Wines Jenke Vineyards Kaesler Wines Kaiser Stuhl Kalleske Wines Kellermeister Kies Family Wines Killawarra Langmeil Winery Leo Buring Liebich Wein Maximilian's Vineyard McLean's Farm Wines Miranda Wines - Barossa Murray Street Vineyard Next Generation Wines Orlando Penfolds Peter Lehmann Queen Adelaide Richmond Grove Rockford Roehr Rosenvale Wines Ross Estate Wines Saltram Schild Estate Wines Schmidts Tarchalice Schubert Estate Seppelt St Hallett Stanley Brothers Stone Chimney Creek Tait Wines The Willows Vineyard Thorn-Clarke Wines Tim Smith Wines Tollana Torbreck Vintners Trevor Jones Turkey Flat Twin Valley Estate Veritas Viking Wines Vinecrest Wards Gateway Whistler Wines Wolf Blass Yaldara Wines Yalumba Yunbar Estate

Introduction

The Barossa Valley is, and always will be, the womb of the Australian wine industry. Most of the country's largest wine companies are headquartered here; for more than 150 years grape growing and winemaking have been the principal occupations of its residents, the evidence everywhere to be seen.

That evidence speaks of the two cultures which hand in hand developed the industry. One was that of the English: George Fife Angas, a promoter of the South Australian Company, settled in the valley and took up vast holdings. In 1841 Angas Town (later Angaston) was surveyed and named after him; it was here that English brewer Samuel Smith founded what was to become Yalumba in 1849.

It was Angas who, perceiving the need for labour for his enterprises, financed the immigration of German Lutheran farmers from Silesia who were suffering oppression from King Frederick III. The first families arrived at Bethany in 1842, and in 1847 Johann Gramp planted his first vines at Jacobs Creek, thereby establishing Orlando. Five years later Joseph Seppelt acquired land near Tanunda, and by 1867 the nucleus of the present-day Seppeltsfield had been built.

The Germans built in stone, and most of that which they constructed stands to this day. It was their culture which quickly became dominant: they baked the breads and cakes, sold the meat and made the sausages and meat wursts (or salamis) which form the basis of the utterly distinctive Barossa Valley cuisine. Nowhere else in Australia does the Lutheran Church flourish as it does in the Barossa, nowhere else do brass bands play with such fervour (and skill).

These strands all come together in the biennial Barossa Vintage Festival, held each odd year (ྜྷ, ྟ and so on and so forth) at the end of March when, during the course of a week, tens of thousands of visitors flock to the valley to participate in the myriad of banquets, feasts, tastings and other wine (and lifestyle) related events.

The evergreen popularity of the Vintage Festival is important in more ways than one. For between 1979 and 1989 the area under vine in the valley contracted sharply (from 8400 hectares down to 5400 hectares), a reflection of the fact that in the 1970s the Barossa suffered a severe identity crisis and loss of confidence. The move from red wine to white, the continuing sharp contraction in the fortified wine market, the sale to multinationals of many of the great family businesses, Vine Pull Schemes, the emergence of the new cool-climate wine regions, and of the varieties which came with those regions (notably chardonnay) all conspired to shake the Barossa. Even its history and culture seemed to become a cliche.

It was left to people such as that ultimate defender of the Barossa faith, Peter Lehmann, assisted thereafter by identities such as Rocky O'Callaghan, Bob Maclean, Charlie Melton, Grant Burge and (as a chef of rare talent) Maggie Beer, to restore the Barossa's psyche.

In the nick of time, as it were, the wheel turned, and red wine came back into favour. The treasures of the century-old, gnarled bush vines of shiraz, grenache and mourvedre were rediscovered; some had befallen the Vine Pull Scheme (mainly grenache and mourvedre), but most had survived, and now plantings are on the increase once again rising to 10 100 hectares by 2000. And it is also true that at no time was there any threat to its core business: making wine out of grapes grown across the length and breadth of South Australia.

Not surprisingly, wine tourism is also big business in the Barossa Valley these days. The region has a character all of its own; ignore the inevitable pieces of kitsch and the occasional eyesore, and you will find the true soul of the valley, and be entranced by it.

by James Halliday