The Barossa Valley – Wine Guide   

Here we have gathered together a wine guide for your information. The Barossa Valley is a major international wine growing region, producing white, rosé, and red wines. The Barossa Valley is most notable for producing great quality red wines, and in particular bold vibrant Barossa Valley Shiraz wines. 

In the Barossa Valley wine is made by fermenting crushed grapes, which have natural chemicals in them enabling them to ferment without having to add acids, sugars and enzymes.  Yeast is added to the fermenting process which converts the natural sugars in the grapes into alcohol.  There are a variety of different grapes, which make up the different varieties of wines available in the Barossa Valley. 

The taste of a resulting wine is dependent on many factors including the variety of grapes used, level of blending of different types of grapes, climate conditions, shape and elevation of the vineyard, quality, type and chemistry of the soil.  All these factors combine to provide differing bases for which the fermenting, finishing, and ageing processes affect the wine.  All these factors, and many more, is what makes each bottle of wine able to taste so different.  And is why different vintages (a vintage is wine which is made from grapes grown in one particular year or harvest) of the same grape processed in the same way can taste different from year to year.  Some larger corporate wineries who want to produce a similar tasting wine with each vintage can master this by using different production techniques such as tannin filtration, cross-flow filtration, micro-oxygenation, spinning cones, and thin film evaporation.  However many of the Barossa Valley wineries pride themselves in producing different tasting wines produced from the same grapes each vintage. 

Vintage wines are usually bottled in one single batch in order to have uniformity in palate, colour, nose, body and development across the vintage.  For a wine to be labelled ‘vintage’ it must contain at least 95% of the grapes grown from the same year, there is a 5% amount which may be added from previous years.  Adding any more than 5% of grapes from another year means the wine is not able to be labelled ‘vintage’.  Many Barossa Valley wine makers go to great efforts to produce a well respected vintage wine using 100% of the grapes from the same year.  Because each different year of grape can vary dramatically in flavour and quality, vintage wines are produced to be very characteristic of the vintage.  Many a wine maker has gained great respect and notoriety in their field from producing one quality and superior vintage.  The Barossa Valley has a large number of very experienced and highly respected wine makers who are committed to producing the best that the Barossa Valley has to offer. 

Wine is considered to be a highly collectable item.  Some vintage bottles can fetch many thousands of dollars.  Investment, or collectors, wines are considered to increase in demand as its price increases.  A quality rare wine is characterised by a consensus among experts as to its high quality, precise production methods, appropriate barrel-ageing, a proven track record of the wine holding well over a long period of time, and a long period (years in length) of time for maturity and approachability of the wine, know as a drinking window plateau.  The term ‘fine wine’ is considered to be a bottle that is retailed between AUS$60 and $100.  The collectors wines are considered to be ‘super-premium’ wines. 

Most wines are packed in glass bottles and sealed with corks.  However it is becoming increasing popular to seal wines with metal screw caps or plastic ‘corks’.  These alternatives are less expensive and prevent ‘cork tainting’. 

The Barossa Valley is a wonderful place to experience, whether it is a wine tour, cellar door tastings, outdoor activities, or visiting one of the many interesting cultural events and festivals that happen all year round, and once you have experienced the beautiful Barossa Valley, you will return time after time.