Barossa wine tasting at its best.
Only 50 minutes from Adelaide, the Barossa Valley is home to beautiful vineyards, church steeples and scores of places to sip, slurp and swirl wine. With more than 90 cellar doors, the Barossa is a wine lover’s paradise. From grand chateaus to tin sheds, the Barossa is renowned globally for its wine tasting experiences.
The village of Nuriootpa is an excellent base for your Barossa wine adventure, with BIG4 Barossa Tourist Park offering 42 self-contained cabins and more than 150 sites for caravans and camping.
From Nuriootpa, it’s a hop, skip and a jump to the picture-perfect western Barossa, including burgeoning gastro-village Greenock and historic Seppeltsfield, as well as must-visit sites such as the Barossa Farmer’s Market, Maggie Beer’s Farm Shop and Mengler Hill.
Of course, the best way to get around the Barossa while on a wine tasting tour is to let someone else do the driving. Whether you’d like to travel by car, bus, motorbike or helicopter, there is an option for everyone.
And, for those weary of classic cellar door experiences or who are less enthusiastic about fermented grape juice, there are a huge number of wine-tasting options in the Barossa that are seriously fun.
Seven iconic ways to taste wine in the Barossa
- Work for it: Wine and food are a match made in heaven, and drinking wine perfectly matched to homemade comfort foods in good company is a Barossa holiday essential. Fortunately for visitors to the region, there is a cosy Italian cooking school and enoteca in the main street of Angaston that meets this brief. Casa Carboni offers cooking classes that start with excellent coffee and culminate in a four-course menu with matched wines. While it’s not wine tasting per-se, it’s a safe bet that the conversation around the table will turn to the local wine scene – you may even pick up some tips on up-and-coming wineries to visit.
- Make it personal: If you have a significant other who is less than enthusiastic about a day of wine tasting, Seppeltsfield has come to the rescue. Not only will the winery’s stunning 420 acres of vineyard, gardens and heritage architecture melt even the most hardened heart, but visitors can also book into the Taste Your Birth Year The tour includes a stroll next to the world’s longest lineage of single vintage wines, stopping at your birth year for a quick taste.
- Dive deep into a favourite variety: Sometimes, the sheer choice available at a cellar door can be overwhelming. Do I try every wine? In what order? What if I say the wrong thing? Focusing on just one varietal (type) of wine means you will learn about it from multiple angles and pick up some excellent facts for your next quiz night. There are many deep dive options throughout the Barossa, including one for Grenache lovers at Artisans of Barossa. The Grenache Project Tasting comprises six wines made by six different winemakers from the same Barossa Grenache vineyard. An outstanding opportunity to explore the winemaker’s influence.
- Chat with the locals: Still feeling overwhelmed at the thought of wine tasting in a busy cellar door? One of the best things about the Barossa Valley is its authenticity. It’s a living, breathing, working agricultural community – the person who crafts your favourite Shiraz could very well be standing next to you at the Barossa Farmers Market. Angas Park Cellars in Nuriootpa has a small but mighty range of wines, craft beers and spirits and offers a cellar door tasting experience every Friday from 4pm to 7pm. A local winemaker, brewer or distiller is on hand for a chat or to answer questions, and the vibe is relaxed and casual.
- Get outside: The Barossa Valley boasts a beautiful landscape; in winter, the naked vines show their age, and the gnarled branches of antique vines can be easily spotted at several vineyards surrounding Nuriootpa, including Yalumba’s Tri-Centenary Vineyard. Barossa is home to some of the oldest vines in Australia, several of which have been cared for by generations of vignerons. Vineyard signage has greatly improved in the Barossa in recent years, making self-drive tours much easier. For those wanting to see the vines in even more detail, Kalleske’s Ultimate Old Vine Experience includes a full vineyard tour of some of Australia’s oldest vineyards, a BBQ hosted by winemaker Troy Kalleske and multiple wine tastings.
- Take snacks: What happens when a winemaker turns into a cheesemaker? The Barossa Cheese & Wine Trail Pack! Qualified winemaker Victoria McClurg fell in love with cheese while working in France and has turned her passion into a thriving business on Angaston’s main street. The Barossa Valley Cheese Co. is worth visiting for its Cheesecellar alone, but booking ahead will snag you a carefully prepared cheese hamper and map to plan your wine tasting adventure.
- Find out why they call it a craft: Visitors to Barossa have the unique opportunity to experience the only on-site winery cooperage in Australia and learn how oak barrels are sourced, made and aged. The Yalumba Cooperage Tour offers a rare insight into the craft of barrel making and includes a tasting of five Yalumba wines. Make sure you leave time to explore Yalumba’s beautiful grounds – it’s the oldest family-owned winery in Australia and features lush lawns, the iconic marble and sandstone clocktower and an expansive and relaxing Wine Room.
And the best bit? Touring Barossa will keep you busy for much more than a weekend! Located in the heart of the Barossa, BIG4 Barossa Tourist Park is the perfect place to rest your weary heads after a day full of fun.
Book your stay and GO BIG at BIG4 Barossa Tourist Park?