Clare and Barossa

We spent a couple of weeks exploring these two areas, their historic towns, tasting their wines and visiting beautiful wineries.

These valleys were populated by Prussian Lutherans in the mid-1800s. There are old buildings and Lutheran churches in every town.

Seven Hills Winery

Our first stop was the Seven Hills Winery in the Clare Valley. This is a large estate, complete with its own church, and is also one of the oldest in the Clare valley.

Even Teddy enjoyed tasting their wines!

Barossa Valley

The Barossa Valley is Australia’s oldest and largest wine-producing region. It is famous for its red wines – particularly Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. However, recently it has also won some awards for Reisling. You can learn more about the Barossa Valley wines here.

Tanunda

We based ourselves in Tanunda in a great caravan park that had all the amenities for kids – a jumping pillow, pool, waterpark, and a communal campfire. And, you could walk right into town!

Tanunda was a great little town in the centre of the Barossa with tons of wineries all around, lots of cafes and a fabulous bakery. It also has 3 Lutheran churches in town!

Wineries

There are 180 wineries in the Barossa valley – from big estates to small, family-run cellar doors. We managed to narrow our visits down to about 10. Here are some photos of some of them.

Chateau Tanunda

This huge estate is just a block off the main street in Tanunda. It had beautiful old buildings, manicured lawns and a gorgeous cellar door.

1847 Chateau Yaldara

This is one of the oldest wineries in the region near the town of Lyndoch. We didn’t end up tasting any wines here, but the estate was beautiful.

Seppeltsfield

This is another old and huge winery. The Seppelts family were Prussian tobacco farmers. When they came out to Australia, they paid the boat fare for several other families to come out with them. When they discovered that this was the wrong climate for tobacco, they decided to grow grapes instead.

We had a lovely time exploring this estate and had a very informative person explaining the wines and history of the family and estate.

Hentley Farm

Right next to Seppeltsfield, is Hentley Farm. This was my favourite winery – it was in a beautiful cozy cottage and the wines were delicious too! 😋 We weren’t actually planning on tasting any wines here because the tasting price was a bit steep, but the person working there not only gave us a free tasting but managed to talk me into buying a delicious Shiraz as well!

Langmeil

This was one of the first wineries we visited. We were the only people in there and we got to sit right in front of the fire. Unfortunately, I forgot to take any photos of the inside (too busy tasting wine!) But, I did get a couple of the outside and walked away with a lovely bottle of Reisling.

Liebich Wein

This was one of our favourites and is famous for their fortified wines (they were also running a great sale on their other wines when we were there). It was very small so unfortunately, my photos were a bit blurry. But I did manage to capture some of their funny signs about wine on the wall.

Chateau Dorrien

This was another very unique winery. They also specialised in fortified wines and mead. We bought a spiced mead (that you drink heated up) and a bottle of fortified wine with blackcurrant. Unfortunately, again, I forgot to take photos, but you can see their website.

Murray Street Vineyard

This was the last vineyard we visited in the Barossa. It was lovely. Our host was very knowledgeable about the small and unique wines created here and we walked away with a couple bottles of wine (a Shiraz and a Rose).

Blacksmith

In between visiting wineries, we stopped at a blacksmith that’s been in operation since the 1840s. It is now run as a museum by blacksmith volunteers on the weekend. While we were there, the blacksmith was making hooks for his new house that he is refurbishing. The kids each got a turn working the bellows.

We really loved both the Barossa and the Clare valleys (even if our piggy bank didn’t) and will definitely be back to visit again in the future.