Adalaide wine tour (barossa) any recommendation

hussey

Hey good folks,
so a few of us (7) are heading to Adalaide in Oct and we're hoping for a wine tour
ideally a private van to just drive rather than the chartered bus tours
Does anyone have any recommendations?

Also does anyone know any services that ships wine, say if we buy x from one winery, and y from another somewhere we can just add them all up and ship them. etc

RustySpoon

Would you consider a self drive mini bus?

woolymammoth

i've been on the Barossa Gourmet weekend twice: twice got absolutely smashed, twice had a great time, twice planned entirely by someone else so i cannot recommend anyone i'm afraid.. :pac: Sorry, i'm a terrible tourist.. been to a few different places driving around once or twice too, but really only passing through on teh way back from other places. That said, there's normally lots of smaller bus / tour operators. If you haven't seen it already, check out barossa.com

Not sure what you mean by private van.. I wouldn't recommend hiring a minibus & driving yourselves, unless one of you is teetotal. That's pretty much the single reason keeping me & the missus from going back more often - always need a driver! My only problem with the Barossa, and McLaren Vale and Adelaide Hills also, is that it sometimes feels like there's soo many wineries, and you get a feeling you're missing out by not seeing some.. All you can do is go with the flow and enjoy the ones you do go to and don't worry about the rest.

Don't know of anyone doing a "collect & ship" for wine, but it would be pretty dumb of any tour operator not to! According to this one, they do a wine-shipment service with their tours, so perhaps others will too if you ask.

pa_

I went to the Saltram winery - very nice location with a restaurant and they have a lovely selection of red wine from sub $20 stuff up to some pretty delicious pricey ones. What I noticed though is that they weren't that cheap - you don't gain any price advantage by buying it from the source (unless you commit to a huge purchase by joining their club). I bought a few nice bottles off them just to be polite but while I was tasting I was able to google that I could just pick it up cheaper in my local Dan Murphy's (and save the hassle and bother of shipping). Might be worth doing if you find some hard to find wine though.

From there it's not all that far to the likes of Elderton and Penfolds where you can pay to have a taste of their Grange / 707 wine (lovely but outrageously overpriced like all Penfolds wine) and see what the fuss is about. If I was doing it again I would cycle - seems like the ideal sort of place for a cycling trip (but probably hard to organise with 7 I'd imagine).

Cooperspale

We drove last December, filled the boot with wine. I wouldn't be too pushed to see the big wineries eg Jacobs Creek, Penfolds, Wolf Blass etc. if you have to, just pick one.
Hentley Farm was outstanding, Grant Burge, Langmeil also in Barossa. Maggie Beer is pretty good for food. To be honest, unless it's cellar door release only, most of them will tell you where their wines are currently stocked in your city or they can ship direct to you.
I heard Barossa House is a good tour, you would fill it with 7 of you.
Also if you can while in Adelaide, take the Coopers brewery tour.

hussey

Good news, just found out one of the girls does not drink wine, so will drive up in a 8seater van (woo hoo)

gonna try some smaller wineries, as the big ones all sell in dan murphys (as usually cheaper)
Grant Burge, Rockford, seppeltsfield, turkey flat are on the list.

Yes coopers in the city is also on the list!
Cheers

woolymammoth

just fyi, if you looking at maps & routes, try and avoid the north half of South Road. They're building a superway above the road and there's all kinds of diversions & speed limits going on. The northern expressway is a good route from the city to Gawler if you don't need to make pit-stops in-between - Main North Road is only 80k/ph most of the way with lots of traffic lights. Java Hut in Gawler does a good breakfast too.