Barossa Valley - ship's tour or on your own?

[deadzone1003]

We will be in Adelaide in November aboard the Sapphire Princess. We are looking at the ship's tour to Barossa Valley vs doing it on our own (using one of the tours listed in tripadvisor.com). I have never done wine tasting through a cruiseline, but 40+ people getting off a bus to hit a cellar door makes for alot of congestion it seems. Also, many of the tours go to the same places or is it just a starting point from which one uses to modify their itinerary? My wife likes beautiful wineries where she can take pictures to send to her friends and I like beautiful wines within a reasonable price that I can buy to take back to the ship. Any helpful hints?

[ellieanne]

I've never done a ship's winery tour, but I have done a private tour of the Barossa during a land tour of Australia, not a cruise. The bus tours can only go to certain, big wineries -- Penfolds, Wolf Blass, and Jacob's Creek are the biggest ones, as well as being the ones that are most likely to export to the US.

 

My private tour was a full-day tour with breakfast and lunch included. Over breakfast, we discussed what kind of wine we wanted to taste and where the best wineries for those varieties were. We visited 5 wineries and tasted at 4, had lunch at the bistro of the 5th. But I will say that NONE of the wine I tasted on my private tour is exported to the US, so I had to buy bottles and either bring them home or make arrangements for shipping them back. In the end, I am glad I did the private tours, because I got to taste things I would never have found otherwise, even if I can't get them in the US.

 

I haven't seen a winery in the Barossa that does not have a picturesque aspect to it, though some of the wineries have tasting rooms/cellar doors that are not connected to the vineyard/winemaking operations, so they are not quite as picturesque.

 

Overall it depends really on the kind of experience you want. Private tours will be more personalized, and may offer the opportunity for more and varied tastings, with the caveat that you will probably not be able to get what you taste outside of Australia. But if you want to taste wine you can get easily when you are back home in the US, I would definitely recommend doing a ship's tour.

 

Another note: Drink Driving laws are VERY strict in Australia. I definitely recommend taking a tour rather that doing a tasting tour on your own. Taking a tour means there is a designated driver and everyone can taste without worry.

Edited May 30, 2014 by ellieanne

[MrsWaldo]

Hmm challenging q

 

IME the best best wineries will not be accessed on a ship tour

 

The ships will do Jacobs blergh and the southcorp mob

 

 

I reckon if wine is really your thing try to do the hills

 

Shaw and Smith/Nepenthe and then into the Barossa for the afternoon…

 

 

just book a driver!

[Lanwood]

Barossa Valley - fantastic wine region.

There's around 150 winery's in the Barossa valley with about 80 of them having cellar doors. Many of my favourites (and better wines IMHO) would not be the bigger touristy one's a tour would ordinarily take you to (but if you want nice photos, you'll want the bigger touristy ones - and there are still plenty of those).

 

I've been to the Barossa about a dozen times, and still would have done only a third of them so far. A comfortable day by car would probably do 5-6 winery's including lunch.

 

Given the distance from the cruise terminal to the Barossa (about an 70-80mins by bus ((65mins by car)) ) I would expect a big bus load to only comfortably do about 3-4 winery's inc lunch. A smaller bus group would probably squeeze another in without rushing.

[FionaK]

I do like the Barossa Valley, but don't bother driving up there too often.

 

In planning your trip there are other wine regions to consider such as the Adelaide Hills and the McLaren Vale regions. The ship may or may not offer excursions to these but I'm sure there would be private tours available.

 

Drink driving laws are a funny thing here. Absolute limit is 0.05% on the bretholizer (.049 is a stern warning, 0.05 is an offence) yet we have drive through liqour stores and it's nothing uncommon to drive around whilst drinking a beer.

 

Small sips for the driver aren't going to be an issue, if you're careful, so do give some consideration to the DIY option with a hire car.

 

A final option is to go into the city on public transport and check out the national wine centre. You could then easily also visit the botanic gardens / art gallery / museum etc, all within walking distance.

 

http://www.wineaustralia.com.au/

 

Adelaide CBD is quite small, only 1mile x 1mile with a neat grid pattern, surrounded by a square open parkland precisely one cannon shot in width for the defence of the city in early days.

 

Whatever you choose to do I hope you enjoy South Australia, take plenty of water it can be warm in November.

 

Remember to leave your tipping money on the ship, it' not customary in Australia

Edited June 1, 2014 by FionaK
I spelt bretholizer as brotholizer and although it was funny figured I should fix it

[deadzone1003]

Currently, the following are the ones that interests me:

 

Grant Burge

Rockford

Peter Lehmann

Penfolds

Seppelt

 

The latter is really that beautiful winery for my wife to take pictures of.

 

Need another winery that would be a great photo op.

 

Thanks!

[Lanwood]

Currently, the following are the ones that interests me:

 

Grant Burge

Rockford

Peter Lehmann

Penfolds

Seppelt

 

The latter is really that beautiful winery for my wife to take pictures of.

 

Need another winery that would be a great photo op.

 

Thanks!

 

Grant Burge/rockford/PL/Penfolds - very nice wines.

Seppelts is a great photo op and a beautiful drive through the palm lined roads of seppeltsfield (you'll pass the seppelts family mausoleum - worth a quick look for a photo if your interested - and you'll pass close to Maggie Beers farm shop {thats if you know who she is outside Aus}). Seppelts winery's is however the only winery (that I know of) that charges for wine tasting (about $5-10pp I think). All others are free.

For another photo op...

1. Traditional looking - google Chateau Yaldara (cellar door is on the main floor of the Chateau ). A nice photo spot next to the fountain in front of the Chateau.

2. Modern looking - have a look at Wolf Blass's new cellar door center.

 

Hope this add some ideas. There are so many really to choose from.

Edited June 2, 2014 by Lanwood

[FionaK]

Grant Burge/rockford/PL/Penfolds - very nice wines.

Seppelts is a great photo op and a beautiful drive through the palm lined roads of seppeltsfield (you'll pass the seppelts family mausoleum - worth a quick look for a photo if your interested - and you'll pass close to Maggie Beers farm shop {thats if you know who she is outside Aus}). Seppelts winery's is however the only winery (that I know of) that charges for wine tasting (about $5-10pp I think). All others are free.

For another photo op...

1. Traditional looking - google Chateau Yaldara (cellar door is on the main floor of the Chateau ). A nice photo spot next to the fountain in front of the Chateau.

2. Modern looking - have a look at Wolf Blass's new cellar door center.

 

Hope this add some ideas. There are so many really to choose from.

 

I agree with all of that!

 

I was drinking a nice Chateau claret from the 60's the other night

 

Peter Lehmans is probably my favourite cellar door from that lot, it feels the most friendly and they probably have one of the nicest sticky sweet desert wines around, their Princess Moscato. They do some very nice cheese platters you can enjoy outside if the weathers nice, but perhaps with something a little more savoury than the moscato (they're all good!!)

[deadzone1003]

Thanks!