BAROSSA VINTAGE FESTIVAL & the BUTCHERS BAKERS WINEMAKER TRAIL: Barossa Valley

For a couple of months each autumn, thousands of people in our famous Barossa Valley get caught up in the crazy but crucial round-the-clock mayhem called vintage. I took the chance to sample its colour and flavours using the new year-round Butcher, Baker, Winemaker Trail as a guide. At the same time, we explored the Barossa invitation to enjoy the heart and soul during the coming Vintage Festival, 16-22 April, 2001.

The Trail brochure lists about a dozen of the region's fifty or so wineries that feature local produce. It guided us to our first titillating taste, up the hill above the small Marananga settlement to the tiny Gnardenfrei Winery. Its labels sit on premium wineshop shelves in New York and Boston, and it sells out at its cellar door in the first half of each year. Malcolm Seppelt of that winemaking dynasty found his niche on the rise two decades back, making a distinct western Barossa drop. His forebear Joseph Seppelt started the superb heritage winery at Seppeltsfield 150 years ago, and it has a predictable place on the trail and in the vintage celebrations.

Back at Gnardenfrei, so does Joylene Seppelt. She's a legend in her own picnic basket, choosing uniquely Barossa produce to fill her legendary offerings for visitors caring enough to book them in advance. When all the legendary Barossa brass bands play together under one giant tin roof during the Festival, Joylene will lovingly prepare all the supper baskets.

The small strung out village of Bethany is where the Barossa as we know it began back in 1842. After vintage, its descendants will "Step Back in Time" every lunchtime of the big week round their pretty church. They'll stress the valley's rich Silesian heritage with costumes, cranking of old farm machinery, markets and more. (There are heritage events and walks throughout the valley all through the Vintage Festival).

And what a season it is for wineries large and small. With the hot weather in February ripening red grapes early, they've overlapped with the white grape picking. Up the top of the Bethany Road, the quarry that provided the village church stone resonates with the slosh and grind of vintage. The Schrapel family have been growing grapes on the slopes of the range since the 1850's, and this generation has built a winery and a reputation that has put it on the international wine map. It is on the all-year-round Butcher, Baker, Winemaker Trail as a cellar door with local produce, including the delectable Pear Tree Cottage condiments. During the Barossa Vintage Festival, its well and truly on the program too, with serious foodie demonstrations with Rosa Matto. It also joins a dozen other wineries for the True Flavour of the Barossa tastings - a new four day sequence covering four grape varieties to prove the Valley is not just about glorious and celebrated slurpy shiraz.

Each town brings out its own flavour during the week of celebrations and special events. Nuriootpa, for instance, has its own Town Day like other towns. All year round, however, it enjoys the smoky aroma and flavours of Linke's Meat Store.

I joined Graham Linke in his customised smokehouse behind the shop, and it was, well, very smoky! As he raked the burning wood coals, he told me about the weekly cycle of metwursts, chickens, the delectable eye fillet of pork - Lachshinken - and the bacon. The butchers are a must on the Butcher, Baker, Winemaker Trail.

And so are the bakers! Tanunda is home to a yeast-lover's paradise, the Apex Bakery. The Fechners use traditional recipes - and an oven - that go back to the 1920's. The Tanunda township plays host to several events during the coming festival, and its excellent Barossa Wine and Visitor Centre in the main street would love to tell you more.

Another community, Angaston, boasts the best baguettes on the trail, at Angaston Gourmet Foods. As an English heritage town, it gives over its attractive main thoroughfare for its own Town Day. After browsing the market stalls, you can try playing their special game, "Villagers and Villains", where the old buildings become the board.

Just out of town, the oldest family winery in Australia is on the exhausting twenty four hours a day run home, getting the grapes in. Yalumba also waves the Barossa flag around the world, displaying its distinctive clock tower on its labels. They're gluttons for punishment too. During the Vintage Festival after Easter, they transform a quiet lawn behind the old cellars into a two day Harvest Market. From the well known to the only-at-Festival-time-obscure, they ply their delicious regional produce. Forty producers are all about bringing the district together, optimising the theme "the heart and soul of the Barossa". You'll definitely need the copiously detailed booklet to plan your attack, and all four seasons through there is the attractive and informative new guide "The Butchers, Bakers, Winemakers Trail". It's another good reason to call and stay, or as they put it, "wake up in the Barossa".

Details:
Barossa Vintage Festival 16th - 22nd April Program
Butchers, Baker, Winemaker Trail brochure.

From:
Barossa Wine and Visitor Centre
66 Murray Street, Tanunda SA 5253
Open Daily Monday - Friday 9am - 5pm Saturday, Sunday, Public Holidays - 10am - 4pm
Freecall: 1800 812 662
Fax: (08) 8563 0616
Email: info@barossa-region.org
Web: www.barossa-region.org