The Barossa Valley is the most famous wine region in Australia.
The wide, fertile valley is made up of biscuit-coloured hills, and its small hamlets are full of old stone cottages.
The Barossa — as it is simply known — was settled in the nineteenth century by Silesian immigrants (Silesia, today part of Poland, was then part of Germany, and German is still regularly spoken here), an insular community of hardworking, frugal farmers with a strong food culture of baked, pickled, preserved and smoked specialities, still evident in the hugely popular Barossa Farmer's Market and the annual dill gherkin and pickled onion championships.
Great cabernet is made in the Barossa, along with fine grenaches and grenache blends and Australian fortified tawnies.
But above all the Barossa is known for shiraz — rich, sappy shiraz with a concentrated core of vivid 'berriness' overlaid by wild lavender, spice, brambly and licorice notes.
Yet for all their dramatic richness and bigness, top Barossa shirazes also have a firm structure, balance and sense of precision.
