I had scheduled a tour of the Barossa Valley wineries back in October of 2023, but I did not anticipate how tired and achy I’d be. I’d slept well in a quiet hotel room and woke early to take NSAIDs. The breakfast buffet was now included with my room; it was delicious. There was a little confusion about where I needed to pick up the tour bus, but texting and emails settled on the pick up point. We took a scenic route through the beautiful Adelaide Hills with Robert, our driver, commenting on the history of Adelaide and wine culture. Unlike Sydney, Adelaide was established as a colony of free immigrants, promising civil liberties and freedom from religious persecution. It has the nickname of The City of Churches and many faiths were welcomed during its founding. No convicts were involved in the settlement of Adelaide for many years. Our tour stoped first at the Whispering Wall, part of the Barossa Dam. The design of the wall means that you can hear people whispering over 450 ft away. It was a pretty spot and vital to the water usage of both Adelaide and the wineries in the area who use a fair amount of irrigation to grow grapes.

Even though the Barossa region is now known for its Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon, the region was first settled by German immigrants who planted Riesling grapevines. For many decades, the Barossa region was known for its fortified wines partly because the Riesling wines produced in the regions often discolored and were best distilled for brandy. Though Shiraz vines were planted in the early 20th century, it was not until the mid-late  20th century that the quality of wines from wineries like Penfolds and Jacob’s Creek began to be recognized. Our first winery stop on the tour was Chateau Yaldara which was founded in 1947; it is the home of some of the oldest Shiraz vines still used in production. I bought a bottle of a very tasty Shiraz for later.

We stopped in Tanunda, one of the first German settlements in the area for coffee. I walked around town a bit, found coffee and my kind of cold brew apparatus with a proper sized flask…

There was a REALLY delicious lunch and wine tasting at Saltram Winery, then a visit to the Menglers Hill lookout and the Barossa Pioneer Memorial for a view of the valley where we’d just toured.

The third winery was Rosenvale Winery, where we had more tasty wine and met the artist who designed the labels for these wines. One of the problems with RTW travel is that you find so much stuff you’d like to buy and send home. I would have bought more wine but the shipping costs to the USA were daunting; I just bought an easily packed print as a gift for a friend. At this point, I’d had enough wine that my knee did not hurt too badly; I was quite content to skip the historic Seppeltsfield winery and watch the Seppeltsfield Date Palms, planted during the Great Depression just to provide work and income for local tradesmen and their families, pass by. Watching the scenery with a mellow buzz on our trip back to Adelaide was a perfect way to end the day.