Big4 Barossa Caravan Park
So… having experienced all that Tailem Bend had to offer we set of to Nuriootpa to spend two weeks enjoying the wine, food and atmosphere of the Barossa region. We stayed the entire time at the Big4 Barossa Tourist Park, which is located on the edge of Nuri’…
The park itself was quite a large park and our van site was huge by comparison to other places we had stayed. It was directly beside the local football oval with a front row view from inside our annex. Since we were staying for two weeks we were hoping to see a local derby with the Nuriootpa Tigers… Of course, when we checked the local draw, the first weekend was an away game and the second weekend was… a bye!
With all that… it was a great place to stay and a good base from which to explore the Barossa. The weather continued to be on again / off again without being dismal although winter did begin to make itself known at this point.
Linear Park / Coulthard Reserve
The Nuri’ Linear Park and Coulthard Reserve are just across the road from the Big4 Barossa Tourist Park and provide a nice place to walk and also wander amongst native plant reserve that also contains a labrynth, sculptures and native gardens.
Barossa Scultpure Park / Mengler Hill Lookout
For our first day in Nuri’ we took a drive to the Mengler Hill Lookout and Barossa Sculpture Park. From the lookout you get a panoramic view of Tanunda and surrounds. Below the lookout is the sculpture park that showcases a number of large obelisk style sculptures in granite and limestone. Mostly abstract in nature but some a little more subject oriented. All in all… a good place to visit and wander around.
Maggie Beer Farm Shop
A trip to Nuri’ is not complete without a visit to Maggie Beer’s Farm Shop. Now… Maggie Beer is a South Australian legend and has done a great deal for S.A. food and tourism… however… the best part of the Farm Shop is the display of exotic pheasants and fowls near the car park.
For me… the farm shop is just a little bit stale and uninteresting with over-priced Maggie Beer labelled goods for sale and a somewhat kitchy replica of her ‘The Cook and the Chef‘ kitchen, where foodie tragics line up to take photos of themselves pretending to cook in a fake kitchen… There’s a kind of cringryness to this for me that detracts from the place rather than adding to it. Sadly… you can buy Maggie Beer products at the major supermarkets for the same price as the farm shop, which just doesn’t sit well from my perspective. Maggie Beer has become a slick marketing image that lacks the authenticity resulting from commercial success.
Personally, I’d rather buy home-made quince paste at a local farmers market…
So… In Nuriootpa the fair Princess Joanne turned 60! And it should be noted that on the very same day she applied for and received a ‘Seniors Card’. Funny and tragic at the same time.
It’s a bit difficult to organise a birthday present when you’re travelling in a caravan with limited space, etc… So I decided to do two things to mark the occasion:
- Book a relaxing massage followed by a float session;
- Book a fine dinner experience at a quality restaurant.
The massage and float turned into a saga when the masseuse ended up getting sick and no other time slot could be found. Massage deferred until later in the trip…
Dinner however, was a major success:
Vintner’s Bar and Grill
Vintner’s Bar and Grill is located amongst the vineyards in Angaston. It has won numerous awards and is a true dining experience. It is a beautifully presented establishment with lots of stone, wooden beams and a log fire. It is true fine dining without being pretentious or snobby.
We did the four course menu where you choose any four dishes from five gategories:
- Little Bits
- Raw
- Smaller
- Bigger
- After
Our meals were absolutely exquisite and although they don’t have an advertised ‘accompanying wines’ option our server was more than happy to do a half glass of recommended wine with each course. This was an excellent option.
Jo’s Choices
- (Raw) – Freshly shucked SA Oysters – shallot vinaigrette
- (Smaller) – Housemade dumplings
- (Bigger) – Duck breast, lentil & leg croquette, celeriac smoked Chardonnay jus
Rob’s Choices
- (Raw) – Atlantic salmon, wasabi, ponzu, black rice & furikake
- (Smaller) – Blue swimmer crab pasta, fermented chilli, ginger butter
- (Bigger) – House pickled pork, fermented cabbage, pea & mustard sauce
We both chose
- Passionfruit soufflé, vanilla bean ice cream & coconut crumble
Every course was sensational and packed with the layers of flavour and clarity that only a quality chef can produce. The passionfruit souffle was, in a word, ridiculous. Absolute perfection in terms of height, colour and souffle fluffiness.
Like Peter Gilmore’s Quay Restaurant, for Rob’s 50th birthday, this was a truly memorable meal and a perfect way to celebrate Jo’s 60th lap of the sun…
Schoolfriends Reunion
For quite few years now, Jo has been catching up every two years with three of her schoolfriends – Karen, Katherine and Penny (who we met up with earlier in the year in a short trip to Bright in Victoria). 2020 and 2021 put a dent in their schedule so they took the opportunity to join us in the Barossa to collectively celebrate their 60th birthdays with Jo being the last to turn 60.
Penny also brought her husband, Steve, along to keep Rob company, whereas Karen’s and Katherine’s husband were, unfortunately, working that weekend.
Karen, Katherine and Penny based themselves in a lovely stone cottage in Tanunda and festivities were opened with a bottle of Moët & Chandon bubbles and nibbles with rounds of reminiscing and forward planning for the weekend. Rob and Steve were content to reminisce about the trip to Bright over some shared reds and then proceed to unpack the mysteries of life, the universe and everything…
Without going into too much detail the weekend unfolded as follows:
- Friday night dinner at Char Barossa;
- On Saturday, A tasting at Cimicky Wines;
- A visit and browsing at Seppeltsfield;
- A tasting at Grant Burge Wines;
- A late lunch at the Barossa 50’s Diner;
- Shopping at Barossa Fresh for a DIY charcuterie dinner at the house;
- On Sunday, breakfast at Four Seasons of Nosh in Tanunda; and
- A visit to Maggie Beer’s Farm Shop.
All in all it was a really enjoyable weekend that came to an end all to quickly. Jo and Katherine resolved that we would meet up again in Adelaide the following week for dinner and also catchup for a day in the McClaren Vale region when we moved on to Victor Harbor.
Seabrook
Heritage Wines
Gibson Wines
Kalleske
Alkina Estate
Chateau Dorrien
Chateau Tanunda
Pindarie
Seppeltsfield
We didn’t actually do a tasting at Seppeltsfield as it required a booking and we were on a bit of a schedule. Seppeltsfield is another grand estate that also houses a fine art gallery, hand-made crafts, jam factory and body care shops. Well worth a visit even if you don’t do a tasting.
Cimicky
Grant Burge Wines
Tanunda is a Barossa town only 5 or 10 minutes from Nuriootpa. It has much more of a touristy feel than Nuri’. Tanunda has some of the oldest vines in Australia dating back to 1847 and due to the absence of Phylloxera (an insect pest) are believed to be the oldest continually producing vine in the world!
Chateau Tanunda
No trip to Tanunda is complete without a visit to Chateau Tanunda, a majestic and grand estate that is a true icon of the Barossa. It was a little quiet and deserted when we visited, largely due to winter and the weather but that meant we had it mostly to ourselves.
The tasting is conducted in a cavernous barrel storage cellar room contains numerous private tasting rooms around the edge as well as privately owned barrels of wine quietly maturing over the fullness of time.
It is a magnificent atmosphere and like stepping back into colonial times but sadly we were’nt overly impressed by the wines that we tasted. Still… it is well worth the visit even if just to stroll around the gardens and the barrels of slowly maturing wines.
Lyndoch Lavender Farm
Not too far from Tanunda is Lyndoch Lavender Farm. A small acreage about the same size as our home back in Royalla. Again it was very quiet due to the season and the weather but gave us the opportunity to wander through the lavender, which also contained a number of other interesting trees, plants and shrubs, including the one pictured above that was quite exotic (to us anyway).
The shop sells a massive range of lavender products and has a cafe (that wasn’t operating) that sells lavender ice cream, and other various comestibles containing lavender.
The Hunt For A Cornish Pasty
South Australia has a long history of mining and miners from Cornwall in particular. Hence it has a reputation for Cornish Pasties.
Now there are pasties and there are Cornish Pasties… A true Cornish Pasty is made of a short pastry, containing lard, encasing finely diced or minced beef, onion, potato and swede. It is seasoned with nothing other than salt and quite a bit of black pepper. That’s it… Nothing else. The flavour coming from these simple ingredients is quite amazing.
We had tried pasties in Robe and on our way through the Tailem Bend area. Despite being called Cornish Pasties they were made not traditional being made with flakey pastry or having mushy pre-cooked fillings. Lyndoch had a lovely looking bakery so we tried our luck there. No luck, a nice pasty but not a true Cornish Pasty… courtesy of yet more flakey pastry…
The hunt continues… as we move around South Australia. We’re hoping that McLaren Vale or Clare Valley will deliver the goods when we get there.
Greenock is a small village to the north-west of Nuri’. Another cute little village with stone cottages and heritage buildings. We went out to Greenock twice. On the first occasion it was to spent a rainy afternoon at the Greenock Brewers. Set in a beautiful heritage Wheat Store you enter via a very small bar at the front, which felt like it had the entire population of Greenock in it. From there you go into the actual brewery area where they have a wood fire, old sofas and some barrel tables where you can relax and try their beers. Rob tried a flight of five and then settled in for a couple of their dark beers… perfect on a cold, wet afternoon. Jo opted to try a few more local wines instead beer.
A couple of days later we cam back to Greenock, which is also the home of the Kalleske Wines cellar door; located on the main street. We had a terrific tasting there with a sixth generation family member who provided an enthralling and enthusiastic history of Kalleske Wines and a thoroughly enjoyable tasting.
After Kalleske Wines we drove out to nearby Alkina Wines, who were shut but a friendly staff member kindly opened up for us to have a tasting. Alkina Wines is owned and has been renovated by an Australian team for an overseas investor. They are very much into soil profiling and planting specific grape varieties in small blocks in accordance with the ‘Polygon Project‘. Quite a fascinating concept, which is also something of a market differentiator. We enjoyed their wines but not as much as Kalleske.
Time for a late lunch at The Greenock, as we were unable to get a table for dinner when we went to the Greenock Brewery two days before. The Greenock was recommended to us and it really was superior pub grub. After some shared Arancini Balls, Jo went for the Salt & Pepper Squid and Rob tried out the Community Pie, which was lamb pie made from local ingredients where they donate some of the money from the pies back to local charities. Highly recommended place to have a meal.
The weather was being grudgingly cooperative throughout our stay at Nuri’. We took a chance on one of those ‘will it/won’t it rain’ days and drove up to Kapunda, north of Nuri’. A statue ‘Map the Miner’, a Cornish miner stands proud at the entrance to the town and is a nod to the mining history of Kapunda.
Kapunda was home to a copper mine in 1800’s and you can wander around the mine site, which is kept as a historical site. The mine began with underground mining and you can still see some of the deep mine shafts and also some tunnels. At some point it was converted into an open cut mine, which is impossible to miss and still has steep sides displaying the various red, orange, yellow, green colours that come with copper ore.
Life was hard back then, especially for young boys. Boys from 11-15 could work at the mine breaking ore with hammers all day (for pittance) as long as they also went to school for another 4 hours at the end of the day, Most died young from malnutrition and those that survived could then go on to work in the mines… A very hard life.
Being an old mining town with Cornish expats we thought that this might be the place for a genuine Cornish Pasty. Alas, the bakery was yet another that used flakey pastry thus rendering it non-traditional… Arrrggghhhh… Still it was a nice bakery and we opted for a different treat instead…
Pindarie Wines is a vineyard/cellar door/restaurant located near Lyndoch. Lunch was the thing to do at Pindarie Wines, which is centred on Pies and Platters. We were given a prime table on the verandah that looked back into grounds and also out over the valley and vineyards.
We opted from the selection of gourmet pies with Jo choosing chicken and Rob for lamb. These pies were truly gourmet and accompanied by a very zesty salad. For lubrication we chose a bottle of their 2020 Risk Taker Tempranillo… A very satisfying choice.
It seems that a lot of the Barossa wineries are playing more and more with Tempranillo. This Spanish style variey, in our opinion, is becoming the ‘new Shiraz’. A little lighter than Shiraz it’s a great red option that stands up to red meat but is equally at home with chicken and even seafood.
We highly recommend lunch at Pindarie Wines when in the Barossa.
Angaston, south of Nuri’, is another picturesque town surrounded by vineyards and wineries. We took a few trips into and through Angaston. Most notably to Vintners Bar & Grill for Jo’s 60th birthday dinner,
We did stop in on one of the blue sky days to walk around the main street and poke around the town. Like other Barossa towns it has a number of historic stone buildings. There is also a quirky street that has a number of, what look like Morton Bay Figs, whose roots extend out into the roadway bursting up through the asphalt.
If you walk around behind the main street there is a linear park following a watercourse that takes past a very old cemetery and along a postcard like path that is very reminiscent of an English countryside village.
The town itself was a little quiet… not surprising given the onset of winter but still a nice place to take a stroll and get some fresh air after the ‘on again/off-again’ rain during our stay in Nuri’…