The Barossa Wine Valley is South Australia’s main wine making region and if there’s one thing you can do here it’s drink. The Valley is a cute town with vineyards from a variety of labels and big names, think Jacob’s Creek, Penfolds, Seppeltsfield and Wolf Blass. If you want to you can spend hours going around the cellar doors tasting a variety of wines and fortifieds and visiting the vineyards. The Barossa is a relaxed and friendly place and if you think wine tasting is for upper class toffs, think again.
We picked up the keys to the Wilderness YHA in Adelaide and headed on up to stay at the Barossa Valley Farmhouse which we had all to ourselves! I’d never heard of this before, but there are actually YHA hostels that are empty which you can rent out privately for groups or for yourself. They’re more expensive than a normal hostel but there are some beautiful hostels out in the more remote areas of Australia. Just be aware that you might have to pick the keys up and drop them off in the nearest city. The farmhouse itself was beautiful, with acres of land, a lovely kitchen, several dorm rooms and a living room.
We toured Barossa in something a little different- a joy ride in a trike! We put on our bandanas and helmets and hopped aboard the trike with our guide for a 30 minute tour of the area and stopped at a beautiful lookout in Angaston.
The following day we went to Jacobs Creek for a vineyard tour and some wine tasting- hic! Trent attempted to create a surfing terminology of wine- although we’re not sure our guide was impressed! We also enjoyed a tasty lunch and to wash it down, wine, wine and more wine.
Finally we had the opportunity to blend our own wine at Penfolds. Rather like scientists in a laboratory we had three wines and three goes at blending them together to create our own special wine in our personalised wine bottles! The wine doesn’t last very long after you’ve created it though so it was a perfect excuse to consume it rather quickly.
We enoyed the Barossa so much that we returned with tour operator Groovy Grape, who took us to the Whispering Wall. If one person stands at one end of the wall and one at the other, you can hear each other whisper from each end so clearly you would think you were stood next to each other.
We visited the Giant Rocking Horse, which by the name you can probably tell is the biggest rocking horse in the world. Our tour guide took us for wine tasting at various wineries followed by a delicious BBQ. The advantage of doing a tour to the Barossa from Adelaide was that we didn’t have to worry about drinking and driving so we could drink as much as we wanted. The Groovy Grape tour is aimed at young backpackers who want to experience the wine region but don’t want anything too posh and stuffy.
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