Barossa Talking Tours

16/11/2016

Barossa Talking Tours - our CD audio disc on Australia's premier wine and food tourist region

03/08/2016

With Spring not all that far away, now is the time to be planning your getaway to Australia's premiere wine and food region, the Barossa Valley in South Australia! To learn more about the Barossa, get our hour-long CD audio tour of the region - perfect for playing in your car or caravan - and more cost-effective, flexible and more informative than an organised tour. Our audio is sound-effect rich as we take you through the Barossa's history and provenance. Have a listen to a sample of our tour here - then go to our website via our 'Contact Us' to buy - and while you're there, also check out our tour on Wine Appreciation and Cellar Door Etiquette too. Our tours will definitely enrich your Barossa experience!

09/10/2014

Over a Century ago, before automated bottling lines had even been dreamed of, hard-working Barossans sat in Benno Seppelts' newly built winery and carefully packed his fine fortifieds and brandies into wooden crates for shipment elsewhere in the Colony - and the world. In the Bottling Hall, an industry was born.

Now the Bottling Hall/Cellar Door is to enter its third age, thanks to a sensitive and thoughtful $3m makeover by Seppeltsfield's present owner, Warren Randall. The space has been gutted and carefully restored and modernised under heritage supervision - keeping and enhancing the old, but adding new features and facilities which will restore the 'Crown of the Barossa' to Seppeltsfield Winery.

From late November, that space is to be re-born as Seppelts Cellar Door AND fine Restaurant FINO - a restaurant whose famous name is synonymous with exceptional dining. FINO will bring progressive regional dining based on local Barossa produce and an exciting wine list - a highlight being a dedicated Fino Sherry barrel (now known in Australia as ‘Apera’), in which by-the-glass (fresh off-flor) liquid gold will be drawn upon daily.

Outside, the once austere space in front of the Cellar Door is being transformed into a spectacular landscaped terraced garden including 6 mature Canary Island palms, transplanted there to visually tie in the new development with the palms which are so synonymous with Seppeltsfield.

Seppeltsfield's old hands from the last Century would be smiling - and Benno Seppelt would be extremely proud. It's going to be a bottler!

Remember to get our audio Talking Tours on the History and Provenance of the Valley - and our Wine Appreciation for Cellar Door visitors - both of which feature Seppeltsfield)

30/09/2014

It’s true to say that you’ll never find a bad wine in the Barossa Valley - but some wines will appeal more than others.

The taste buds of the Barossa’s legion of fine wine makers carry forward the region’s rich heritage each vintage and collectively make the Barossa Valley Australia’s premier wine region.

But now new technology is enabling wine connoisseurs no matter what their experience to place themselves in the wine makers’ red shoes to blend their very own wines - albeit with the willing help of some of the finest taste buds in the Barossa - at Jacob’s Creek.....

Check out more on our blog here! http://www.barossatalkingtours.com/blog

26/09/2014

Get ready Australia! The Nation’s premier wine and food tourist region, South Australia’s stunning Barossa Valley, is emerging from its long winter sleep and beginning its stunning transformation from bare browns to lush green as countless vines awaken and welcome the warm spring sun.

‘Bud burst’ is now happening across the Valley - some areas faster than others - as vineyard after vineyard shrugs off the cold of a mild winter and charge toward a new and exciting vintage.

This is the time to plan your first visit - or return visit - to the wine region which stands head and shoulders over the rest. Follow the footsteps of the German winemakers and take in the vistas which envigorated them all those years ago and whose labours made the Barossa simply the best.

Get to the Barossa and savour the sun of years past - now encapsulated in delightful vintages stretching back over decades. Sit on the terraces with the ghosts of winemakers past and complement their fine wines with Barossa fine foods as you contemplate vintages to come.

To stimulate your mental taste buds and to add depth to your Barossa visit, get our audio Talking Tours on the history and provenance of the Barossa, and our disc exploring sublime cellar door experiences as you take in this Barossa Spring! Visit www.barossatalkingtours.com

20/08/2014

The Barossa Valley, Australia's premier wine and food region, hosts a Gourmet Weekend every August - the unofficial start to the tourist season as the Barossa begins to awaken from its winter hibernation.
This is a not-to-be-missed event with friends and family, visiting wineries with warm fires, music, good food and great company!

This year we visited the iconic wineries, Jacob's Creek, Chateau Tanunda, and Pindarie Wines - and join with them in this exquisite event which attracts visitors from around Australia and the world.

Remember to get our audio CD tours of the Valley to get the best tourist experience!

See our Youtube video here..... http://youtu.be/cXaH-dGrigM

The Barossa Valley, Australia's premier wine and food region, hosts a Gourmet Weekend every August - the unofficial start to the tourist season as the Baross...

26/07/2014

...And while you contemplate your Barossa Gourmet Weekend visit, here's something to look at. This pic is of the Barossa in full winter bloom, taken in the dying days of July. All the vines have had a great drink (better than last year) and are dozing in the late winter sun before bursting forth with a new vintage. This is a great time to visit the Barossa - and learn its stories from our discs. Less tourists means more time in your favourite cellar doors - and more time around the warming fires! Come on - plan your visit now!

22/07/2014

With winter in the Barossa in full icy swing, it's time to think about the warmer weather to come and the great wineries and wines to re-visit in South Australia's magnificent Barossa Valley.

The 2014 tourist and wine season kicks off unofficially on the August 15/17 weekend, when the Barossa… Be Consumed Gourmet Weekend plays host to 35 events throughout the Barossa. (our pic shows one event from last year's Gourmet Weekend!)

There's busses to get you around if you want to make the most of the day -- otherwise, remember to appoint a 'car captain' or 'coach captain' to make sure you get home safe and not bother the boys in blue (or 'Darth Vader' black as it is these days.....)

Check out one of the events from the Gourmet Weekend, 2013, in our video posted to our Blog here! http://www.barossatalkingtours.com/blog

Our prediction for this year's event, weather-wise? Pack a brolly and a coat!

To 'prep' yourself for your amazing Gourmet weekend, get our one-hour CD audio tours ahead of time! Learn about the history and provenance of the amazing Barossa Valley on our first disc, then learn about Etiquette for Cellar Door Visitors on our second disc (so you don't make an idiot of yourself when visiting the myriad cellar doors in the Valley!) Play our discs as you leave Adelaide and be 'full bottle' about the Barossa (to excuse a pun!) when you arrive for your Gourmet Weekend experience! Go to our store for details - http://www.barossatalkingtours.com/our-shop.html

02/06/2014

Doing the gardening last Sunday, were we? Cleaning the house? Washing the car? Cleaning the dog?

Well, we thought we'd show you where we were on Sunday - at the boutique winery, TeAro Estate in Williamstown. And there wasn't a shovel, a vacuum cleaner, a sponge - or a wet dog in sight! Check out our video here, just to make you jealous (it runs just a minute, so go on! Treat yourself!)

http://youtu.be/qnHbX1CcJx8

Sundays in the Barossa are terrific but no more so than the first Sunday in each month at TeAro Estate in Williamstown where this boutique cellar door turns ...

30/05/2014

With you mothers rushing about picking up your kids on the school runs, we thought we'd show you the kids we look out for - and the 'school yard' they play in!

With cellar doors stocking up their wood-piles for the delicious winter fires to come, it's worth noting that not all land up here is totally given over to vines - particularly in the lesser known but scenically stunning Eden Valley. The Eden Valley is known for its cooler-climate wines, being higher in altitude than its sister valley, the Barossa - and has a greater diversity of agricultural pursuits in its rich rolling pastures.

It's lambing time in the Eden Valley - and in these photos taken at the Eden Valley Lookout, the kids are running in their scores, happy and contented. And who wouldn't be with views like these!

25/05/2014

While the Barossa was full of cyclists on May 25, most South Australians were unaware of a long forgotten memorial service to those who fought in the Boer War in South Africa at the beginning of the 20th Century - and the death of a former Williamstown man in that war who as noted as ...”a good bicycle rider....”

Sunday May 25 is known as BOER WAR DAY, the closest Sunday before 31 May, this the 112th anniversary of the Treaty of Vereeniging, which ended that dirty little conflict in 1902.

As Australians, we all revere ANZAC Day (as well we should), but remembering those South Australians who fought in the Boer War (perhaps the ‘dress rehearsal’ for the Great War to come 14 years later?) has sadly faded in our memories.

One of the loneliest (and perhaps most poignant) memorials in South Australia to our fallen heroes of that conflict stands defiantly alongside the Williamstown Memorial Hall, Williamstown being the south-eastern gateway to the Barossa.

The Boer War was fought over British aspirations to gain the wealth of South African goldmines, and we South Australians sent our best young men to fight for the ‘motherland’. Private Smith was one of 127 South Australians who formed the very first contingent to travel to South Africa.

For more details about Private Smith and his heroic sacrifice, go to our Blog: http://www.barossatalkingtours.com/blog - and remember when you cyclists next visit Williamstown, forego your latté and take a moment to visit William Smith’s memorial - a permanent reminder of a good Williamstown citizen, ‘a good bicycle rider’... a warrior and a hero.

20/05/2014

No doubt that for a lot of you, the only autumn colours you would have seen in your peak-hour drive home through the soul-less grey canyons of your big cities would have been the reds and yellows of traffic lights.....

So we thought we'd show you the reds and yellows which stopped us on our peak-hour drive home from Tanunda to Lyndoch in the Barossa today....

The Barossa is bursting with autumn colour as Mother Nature throws her pre-winter rug over the vines and towns of the Valley after the hard work of Vintage 2014. Now, this magnificent 'Indian Summer' we're enjoying looks like extending through the coming weekend - so why not plan a visit to the Barossa this weekend! And to make the most of it, get our audio CDs to refresh your brain as your eyes take in the luscious colours of the Barossa in full autumn spendour! Go on - share this with your friends (they'll be jealous too!) and help us add to our 'likes'! They'll thank you for it! http://www.barossatalkingtours.com