An hour northeast of Adelaide, the Barossa is the easiest great wine region in the world to visit. The cellar doors sit within about 17 kilometres of each other, so you can taste at four in a day without ever driving more than fifteen minutes between them — a rare thing among regions of this reputation.
What you come for is Shiraz, and specifically old Shiraz: some of the vines here were planted in the 1840s by Silesian settlers and survived the phylloxera that took out most of Europe's. The wines are dense, warm-climate, generous. Riesling from the neighbouring Eden Valley provides the counterweight.
The valley is two parallel roads through gum trees and stone cottages, with the big historic names and small growers side by side. Most cellar doors open without an appointment. Harvest runs February to April, hot and busy; September to November is greener and quieter.
