Barossa Valley Food and Wine Tour

Discover Barossa Valley on a Wine & Food Tour

Barossa Valley is what comes to mind when thinking of South Australia Food and Wine. It is an old wine region that has made our Top 20 Things to do in Adelaide.

Next to being a top wine region, Barossa is also one of the largest farming and growing areas with strong food traditions. Initiated by the early settlers, German and English people’s hard work and sustainable lifestyle made Barossa Valley one of Australia’s most thriving food regions.

Today Barossa Valley boasts over 80 cellar doors and 150 wineries, some of the best South Australian Restaurants, gourmet and food events and a flourishing Barossa Farmers Market.

I recently went on a Food and Wine and Tour to experience its world-known wines, food, and landscape. Here are the highlights of my Barossa Valley Food and Wine Experience.

Travelling with a local and a bunch of fellow travellers

I board the coach with a dozen fellow travellers and our driver and tour guide, Ian, who has a wealth of information to share with us. As we drive out of Adelaide, I listen in awe to Ian’s stories and facts about the Barossa. The challenges, the knowledge, the skills, and the passion handed over from generation to generation and transferred to the present days’ evolving food culture scenery. Ian seems to know every corner of the Barossa Valley Food and Wine Region, and his detailed commentary is astounding.

TeAro Estate – Old Heritage Barn restored to the cellar door

Williamstown is our first stop at TeAro Estate, a family-owned boutique winery and cellar door. After warming up with a good cuppa, we gather around a table for our first round of the morning wine tastings. It is fascinating to listen to the family’s stories, from starting up the winery to the long restoration works of the heritage Barn to the present days: the result of hard work, love for the land and passion for winemaking. After a few sipping, I am captured by Sweet Petite, white wine with a fruity tropical note.

Keller Meister – Award-Winning Wild Witch Shiraz

Our next stop is at Keller Meister, Lyndoch, a mud-brick cellar door style with old barrels displays and a typical cosy cellar door ambience. The fire warms up a cool winter morning and our wine tastings. Keller Meister takes pride in making great red wines, like the Wild Witch Shiraz, which won the world wine competition in 2011 and their award-winning Boots Cider. Indeed a special cider. From the Keller Meister estate, we enjoy a beautiful view of the Barossa Valley Ranges.

Maggie Beer’s Farm House – A celebrations of the senses

We drive past Tanoonda, the heart of Barossa with the Barossa Valley Visitors Centre, on our way to Maggie Beer’s farmhouse. Once you have entered this place, you will know why it is so popular. I have never seen a place like this, from the photos hanging on the walls about Maggie’s life to the food displays. You can taste any product before buying it. The tastings are in an open space so that you are free to wander around while tasting food at the beautifully decorated tables. You can literally spend hours browsing through the shelves brimming with jars of homemade marmalades, condiments, pastes, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and many more delicacies.  An onsite restaurant serves freshly prepared local food.

Our 30 min stop is too short to do justice to this place. After taking in the peacefulness of this place, snapping a few photos, our time is off. We are leaving for our next destination!

Saltram Cellar Door – Food and Wine excellence

Our fourth stop is at Saltram Cellar Door, just before entering Angaston. We visit the old cellar door and taste their well-known red, the Shiraz Pepperjack, and I really love this full-bodied red wine.  Here we have a scrumptious lunch prepared to perfection with the finest ingredients (all local produce, of course). I like the dukkah as the entree, and my vegetarian pie with spinach and feta cheese is delicious. After lunch, I take time for wandering around into the Saltren’s Kitchen, a well-known restaurant of Barossa. Their Cellar Door shop is so well presented and inviting that I cannot help grabbing a souvenir and, of course, a bottle of the Pepperjack Shiraz! 🙂

Wolf Bass Visitor Centre – A world-known Cellar Door

After lunch, a short drive takes us to the world-know Wolf Bass visitor centre. Welcome to the world of wine! The place looks like a wine museum, with a meticulous, elegant display of bottles lined to label colour: the blue, the red, the yellow, the pink. As I wander through the centre, I bump into a huge book about the Barossa Valley Wineries with photos and facts about the past, the present and the future of Barossa. What a classy place!

Pindarie Estate – The Cellar Door with a view

Time has flown, our afternoon is almost over, but there is one more cellar door to visit with wine tasting. Ian tells us this is a special place with a terrific view. We are at Pindarie Estate on the Western Ridge.  The cellar door is inside the newly restored historic stables, within a farm and sheep property with a picture-perfect-scenery. I lose myself marvelling at the spectacular view across the valley. Lucky enough to be there at the right time, with the right light for taking photos…

I join my tour mates inside the cellar door in a warm and welcoming ambience. I learn about the several gold medals the Pindarie Red Wines have won over the last years and cannot help trying some more wines. I like La Femme Savagnin and their red wine blend: Tempranillo, Sangiovese and Shiraz.

It’s time to go back to Adelaide. Oh no, the fun is not over yet! We can’t help exploring more of the backyard and climbing the giant haystack, such a beautiful backdrop for a selfie 🙂 I take in the view with a deep breath. I jump onboard of our coach and can’t wait to listen to Ian’s more interesting stories about the region. What a fabulous day! I’m going to remember this fantastic Barossa Valley Tour.

I have been hosted on this tour to write a product review. All opinions on this article are my own.

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First published in 2015, last updated in April 2021

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