Australia: Barossa Valley
If McLaren Vale is the Sonoma Valley of Australia, the Barossa is Napa Valley. It’s no where near the same commercial level and there’s no Highway 29 equivalent, but we walked into several recently constructed tasting rooms, designed to accommodate the larger crowds that seem to be flocking to the area.
Henschke
Henschke was our first stop of the day. The new tasting room is situated on the boundary of Eden Valley (which is actually a plain, btw) and just down the road from their famous Hill of Grace Vineyard. My husband remarked, “These wines are toddlers! They are all clearly designed for aging.” My favorites were the Peggy’s Hill Riesling and the Johann’s Garden GSM (Mataró is the Australian term for Mourvèdre). Husband actually enjoyed the Chardonnay, which is more Chablis than Napa in style.
We tried both the Wheelwright and Mount Edelstone Shiraz. We thought the Wheelwright had more fruit while the Mount Edelstone has a bit more smoked paprika on the palate. Both could sit for at least 15 years and would love to be paired with food.
Yalumba
Driving into Yalumba is something out of a fairytale. The architecture is AMAZING. We were convinced the one building had to be an old boarding school or something. Nope, they store the barrels in there. They also make the barrels ON SITE. Our favorite wines were The Octavius (tastes like coconut!) The Signature (earthy and could easily take a steak), and The Menzies (a really beautiful 100% cab with a floral nose, nice red fruit, and Dr. Pepper flavor). Note: Husband thought The Menzies was a bit too delicate for a steak and recommends pairing it with lamb instead.
We were also blown away by Yalumba’s collection of Tawny’s. Tawny is Australia’s term for port-style dessert wine. Making Tawnys is actually how Australia got it’s start in winemaking (and they’re REALLY good at it!) but many producers have found that they can make more profit making red table wines that don’t require the same amount of storage.
Torbreck
Torbreck was our final tasting room of the day. Their new tasting room isn’t quite finished yet, but you can tell it’s going to be a stunner.
We tried (and liked!) so many of their wines especially the reserve flight.,which didn’t have a bad pour in the group. Of the current releases the Steading was our favorite to pair with pizza with little bit of earth and fruit. I loved how they went outside the box on the Woodcutter’s and used Roussanne instead of Viognier as their blending grape, which softened up the palate and brought out the citrus.
A few notes: We ate lunch at Maggie Beers (👍🏻👍🏻) and dinner at Hentley Farm. While we don’t really recommend the wine at Hentley, the food was possibly the best we had during our time in Australia. We also opted for the Twlight Tour and dinner at Penfold’s Magill Estate …and we very glad we did. Not only did we have the opportunity to try some magnificent wines and hear their origin story from the sommelier but we were able to bypass the “Disneyland” aesthetic of their Barossa Valley tasting room.