Adelaide Sightseeing Barossa Food & Wine Day Tour review | SA’s Great Travel Planner

Let someone else do the driving on a day of wine, food, and chocolates.

I should have had breakfast. The first stop today is at Pindarie Wines, in Gomersal.

It’s to be a wining, dining day out, which is always an attractive concept. This time, there’s the promise of wine-chocolate tasting in the mix. And, no need for a designated driver.

I’m aboard a small Adelaide Sightseeing bus for the new Barossa Food & Wine Tour. About 15 of us (group maximum 30) set out at a very civilised 9.15am.

The chatty guide is telling tales about our state. I must admit that he shares some snippets of history that I have, um, forgotten.

We locals tend to take our beautiful green-rimmed city for granted, but he says Adelaide is the only one in the world to be surrounded by parks and gardens. Did I know that?

Driving the expressway north, he quips that Port Adelaide was originally dubbed Port Misery because of the swamps and mosquitoes. I didn’t know that.

As we approach the Barossa, we learn the region was named by our city planner, Colonel William Light, because it reminded him of its namesake area in Portugal. I didn’t know that.

And, did you know the Germans were the largest group outside of the UK to settle in South Australia? I did know that, but given the day ahead in a Valley so influenced by Germans, it’s a nice reminder.

So, back to that first midmorning stop. Fortunately for those of us with bad breakfast habits, our Pindarie host, winemaker Wendy Allan, has laid out good cheese to nibble as she talks us through the wines and history of this cellar door, a labour-of-love transformation of the original stables. We’re cosy by a large open fire set into a hall of handsawn timbers and sandstone.

She weaves the family history through our tastings. The limestone ridge and soils flavour these wines, made by an intrepid family. There’s a Risktaker tempranillo, so named “because everyone thought we were crazy planting tempranillo grapes”. It’s good, and the best news is that it’s one of several lighter drops we should drink now. “Cellaring is only for full-bodied wines,” says Wendy.

There’s plenty of time to move to the adjacent cafe for coffee and cake, or out on the veranda overlooking rolling vineyards. A giant haybale stack framed by the vineyard setting becomes the centre of some fun-to-clumsy-climbing photos.

Next stop is for many foodie tastings at Maggie’s Farm Shop, in Nuriootpa. Some of the group sneak shots of themselves in the famous The Cook & The Chef TV production kitchen. And we’re given a tip: yes, much of Maggie’s business is now in larger production hands, but if the product has a signature pheasant on the label it is still her own.

The first-course platter at Lambert Estate, where the Adelaide Sightseeing Barossa Food & Wine Tour stops for lunch.

Lunch is two ample share-platter courses with generous tastings at Lambert Estate, a mod winery and restaurant in Angaston. Its boutique single-vineyard wines are only available at this cellar door or online, and the discounts for our little group are significant. Today, Black Sheep shiraz, $21, is $84 for six.

After a quick panoramic photo-op stop at Mengler Hill Lookout, we’re seated in a private zone of the Barossa Valley Chocolate Company in Tanunda, to sample wines deliciously paired with chocolate. It’s a fun exercise.

The choc plant is necessarily housed in a large, dedicated building, with views of chocolatiers at work. While the place is not particularly cosy, nor choc-quaint at all, there’s a cafe, and shop full of milk, dark, white and the new ruby red chocolate, in all shapes and souvenir gift forms.

Resist too much temptation, because the bus takes the scenic, consistently winding, tummy-bending Gorge Rd way home.

The author was a guest of Adelaide Sightseeing, part of the SeaLink Travel Group.

This review was first published in October 2019 and details updated in March 2021.

• Phone [phone]am-7pm
• adelaidesightseeing.com.au
• DEPARTS Adelaide Central bus station, 85 Franklin St, 9.15am-5.15pm. Operates Wed to Sun.
• TRANSPORT Smaller-format, comfortable airconditioned bus, seating up to 30. Tour not suitable for children.
• PORTS OF CALL Pindarie Wines, Maggie’s Farm Shop, Mengler Hill, Lambert Estate and the Barossa Valley Chocolate Company.
• PRICE $195 Adult or Conc. $154. Prices valid for travel until March 31, 2021.