Australia 2025

Day 27 - Barossa Wine Tour

Up early to walk around to the nearby Hilton where the minibus was starting from for this 9 hour trip to have a look around the much vaunted Barossa Wine Valley and it's environs. I was a bit apprehensive at first as I had visions of Max in my head, but our guide this time was an ex-copper from South Australia so my confidence grew, especially as he cracked some good jokes such as he crossword inventor is buried in that graveyard: 3 down and 4 across. However, there are clearly a lot of middle-class pretentious people on this trip so should provide good fun to wind them up, with such things as "I prefer Bathams back home" etc.

The first stop was Kies Winery. Now what's the difference between a winery and a vineyard? Well a vineyard is where wine grapes are grown, and a winery is where those grapes are turned into wine! We thought it might be where the stuff was also bottled but this isn't always the case. Here we had 7 samples of which the Shiraz was the best.

Second stop: Turkey Flat. Again 7 samples of which the Shiraz was again the best. Some of the stuff here was awful. We had lunch here as well but that was a poor man's continental breakfast. I was still starving at the end.

Third stop was Rosendale, started by an expat Prussian family in the late nineteenth century. Shiraz was again the best and another 7 samples tried but I spit out 5 of them.

We also stop in Tanuda for some tea, cake and a look over the valley. This was great and included a road that had been planted with Canary Island palm trees planted by out-of-work employees during the 1930's depression. Rather than dismissing them, they gave them this task to do. Good job they did too!

The crowd on this bus are interesting and include 4 Germans from Cologne. The wine has softened them up a bit so they are quite chatty in the end. It's mainly English Cricket lovers though and some proper wine snobs who I find most amusing. Also, and Mr Cubbage may know this - there was a woman called Laura who went to Wolves Poly from 1983-86 and read BAML. She was originally from Worcester but lived for 3 years in Wolves.

The wine and the heat had took it out of me so an hours sleep was required followed by a shower and then we tried to find the Thai restaurant. Two were closed as it was Sunday but we found a good one in the end and the Chicken Satay was delicious.

Back again to Gilbert Street for a beer but again as it was Sunday, a bit quiet.