The Barossa Valley (South Australia)
07-08 September 2025
Our second day in the vineyards
was absolutely glorious. Living in Melbourne, you can easily lose sight of what
“good” weather actually feels like or at very least what “normal” might be. It’s been
ten years since I left Sydney, and now, when November rolls around and
Melbourne somehow settles at a 19-degree baseline, I can’t help but think, “Wow,
this is really nice.” This is what assimilating feels like. Driving out under
blue skies and a wonderfully comfortable morning, this felt like it would be a
very good day.
Chateau Tanunda was our
first stop of the day. Just a short drive northeast of Tanunda itself. Driving
into the winery it felt grand and expansive, just like arriving onto an estate
of some minor royal (or so I imagine). A building renowned for its majestic bluestone
architecture and rich winemaking history, the estate is very proud of its
heritage, which dates back some 150 years to some of the earliest vineyards
planted.
The inside was not opulent but did
feel as grand as the exterior. A fabulous place to commence our first tasting of
the day, set amidst rows and rows of oak wine barrels, stainless steel tanks,
and thousands of bottles of wine, this formed a both a fabulous setting and
supporting atmosphere for discovering the Tanunda product.
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Wineries are truly magical
places. They greet you with immaculate landscaping and striking presentation,
drawing you in with architecture and design that exude style, character, and
charm—often perfectly reflecting the vineyard’s brand. Then there’s the
ambiance and aesthetics: after a couple of glasses of wine, sinking more deeply
into your chair, you find yourself happily parting with cash for bottles whose
weight you don’t fully consider… until you’re ten minutes from the airport and
wondering whether you ‘make weight’ or not. There’s so many things that wineries
in general, ‘on a global scale’, seem to do very well. Its an industry that
just gets it all right….well, except for that bad Malbec that I consumed at Gauchito
Gil’s Mabec Day back in 2019…you should never get ‘cat piss’ on the nose….just,
no!
Jacobs Creek was our next
stop of the day. Certainly one of Australia’s most iconic and internationally recognised
wine brands. We stopped here less for a tasting session and more of a
celebration or, at least, recognition of ‘Father’s Day’ - which just meant that it was a lunch stop
that would be accompanied by wine.
I don’t know about you, but
Father’s Day always seems to arrive with its own whirlwind of chaos. There’s an
undercurrent of mayhem and disarray you rarely find on Mother’s Day. While
Mother’s Day feels deliberate, significant, and almost ceremonial, Father’s
Day, from my recent experience, is a different beast: kids hopped up on
chocolate tearing around like tiny dynamos, high-octane energy, meats burning
on barbie’s, random beers, and loosely organised attempts at team sports that
somehow devolve into kiddies tears. Father’s Day often feels like an
afterthought and its probably because we’ve collectively lowered the bar on
what counts as thoughtful and what we’re willing to accept as Father’s. 100%,
our threshold for what is good is equivalent to how many drinks we can have in
peace whilst watching a game. So with that said, the afternoon at Jacob’s Creek
was right on the mark, food, alcohol, sun and crazy kids. What more could you ask
for.
Its funny, visiting wineries is
very rarely just about the wine but rather about the entire experience. For
sure, Yalumba had some decent tipples but I would be hard pressed to remember
any of them, but for the experience, on this day it won gold. Absolutely delightful.
On our final day, we had planned
to visit Henschke’s, but discovered they were closed on Mondays, so we
turned instead to our second choice, St. Hallett. And what a wonderful
twist of fate that turned out to be—this became my personal favourite stop of
our time in the Barossa. Perhaps it was the fact that it was a quiet Monday,
with not a soul in sight, combined with the perfect weather, the golden light,
and the expansive, sun-dappled vineyards—it all conspired to create a magical,
almost cinematic moment that felt utterly timeless. And once again, the wine felt
just like a gentle accompaniment to he satisfaction of the moment. Just sitting
in their grounds, having a very nice Shiraz with my wife and kicking the footy
around with my son, this felt alright. Kind of like the ‘great days’ that you
may conjure in your imagination, and then somehow request to borrow in real
life every now and then. So even though this time and place felt borrowed, it
wasn’t lost on me and it certainly became one of my favourite memories of the
weekend….and will probably entice me into buying a few more bottles of St.Hallett
at some stage. And by the way, if you ever roll into that winery in your own Barossa
discoveries, I fully recommend to do the chocolate and wine pairings. Absolutely
delightful!
As our time at St.Hallet ended, the
realisation dawned that we would need to be making our return to the Capital
of the Commonplace (aka.Adelaide) , the unfortunate gateway out that would
foster our return home. Driving south and witnessing the unremarkable skyline
of the Adelaide CBD manifest meekly on the horizon, there was still the solace
and comfort of South Australian sunbeams breaking through the windows and filling
us with glowing warmth.
Is Adelaide really that bad? In
all honesty, I don’t know. I can’t write it off in full but my impressions from
two separate visits, split by nearly 20 yrs, still assures my sense of inherent
fairness that the city comes across as unremarkably ‘meh’. The city feels like a
country town that got a little too big but hasn’t made the necessary adjustments.
With that said, we did manage to find a nice cocktail bar overlooking the River
Torrens and the Adelaide Oval – quintessentially Adelaide? Celebrating
simple pleasures? Whatever it was, we ended mundane Monday madness with an
exclamation mark.
