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Barossa Valley

Located about 70 kilometres north-east of Adelaide, the Viticultural Area (GI) in the state of South Australia is considered one of the most important and famous in Australia. The surrounding Barossa Ranges are part of the South Australian mountain range Mount Lofty Ranges. The name Barossa is of Spanish origin. Together with the Eden Valley area, Barossa Valley forms the Barossa Zone. The first settlers were of English descent. The basis for viticulture, however, was created a little later by German settlers, mainly from Silesia, as well as Posen and Prussia in the period 1840 to 1880, who brought the Riesling with them. The frequent German street names are a reminder of this. In 1847, Johann Gramp (1819-1903), an immigrant from Bavaria, planted the first vines on the flat valley floor; today this is the Orlando vineyard. In 1845, the English doctor Dr. Christopher Penfold (1811-1870) founded his winery here, which still exists today under Penfolds. The famous winegrowing pioneer Max Schubert (1915-1994) later worked at this estate. Joseph Ernest Seppelt (1813-1868), a native of Silesia, founded one of the largest wineries on the continent in 1851.

Barossa Valley - Rebflächen in Tanunda

Soon wine became one of the most important products and was already exported to England around 1890. Due to the hot and dry climate, artificial irrigation is required on a large scale. The vineyards are mainly on flat land at an altitude of between 240 and 300 metres above sea level. The area supplies much of Australia's production, although grapes from other areas are also processed. The vineyards cover about 10,000 hectares of vines, the main grape varieties being Riesling, Shiraz (Syrah) and Cabernet Sauvignon. Well-known producers are Glaetzer, Henschke, Krondorf, Charles Melton, McGuigan Wines (Australian Vintage Limited), Mitolo, Orlando, Penfolds, Peter Lehmann, Richmond Grove, Rockford, Saltram, Seppelt, St. Hallett, Veritas, Wolf Blass(Treasury Wine Estates) and Yalumba.

Image: ScottDavis, own work (?), CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

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Dr. Christa Hanten

For my many years of work as an editor with a wine and culinary focus, I always like to inform myself about special questions at Wine lexicon. Spontaneous reading and following links often leads to exciting discoveries in the wide world of wine.

Dr. Christa Hanten
Fachjournalistin, Lektorin und Verkosterin, Wien

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