Wineries to visit in the Barossa Valley

It’s always nice to get back home to the Barossa. Its dips and scarps are familiar, I know the backroads, the vineyards, the butchers and the pie shops. Plus, I get hugs from friends. It lifts the soul.

Recently, while there for an event, I decided to make the most of my quick trip by slotting in a few winery visits on the way back to Adelaide. So I couldn’t get into too much trouble, Jeni Port, fellow Tasting Team member, and J’aime Cardillo, Halliday's digital content manager, were my co-pilots for the day.

Dan Standish.

The Standish Wine Company (AKA Standish)

Our first port of call was Standish Wines, located on Kalimna Road in the old Colonial Estate digs. There is nothing finer than pulling into the driveway past the old gnarled vines and seeing the wooden doors open, wines and stemware set up and ready to roll, and a backdrop of the next release wines all resting in barrel.

Dan Standish launched Standish Wines in 1999. The sixth generation Barossan was also the chief winemaker at Torbreck, and has worked stints in the Napa Valley, Sonoma, Spain and the Rhône Valley. Dan's winemaking acumen is of the highest calibre.

There are four wines in the Standish quiver; all jaw-droppingly pure, beautifully composed and speaking clearly of place.

The 2022 The Relic, from an east-facing vineyard in Krondorf, shiraz with a tiny (two per cent) addition of viognier, is a stunner. Likewise, the Lamella, from the ancient shiraz vines of the Stonegarden vineyard just near Springton in the Eden Valley.

The remaining two wines are from the west. The Schubert Theorem hails from the Schubert vineyard on Roennfeldt Road, Marananga. It's a bold, ironstone-stuffed shiraz and shows incredible fruit depth and harmony. 

And finally, The Standish, sourced from the Laycock vineyard in the western parish of Greenock, displays all the fruit purity and density that the subregion is famous for. The quartet are such beautiful wines and Dan is a worthy flag bearer for the ‘New Barossa’. An (appointment-only) tasting should be on everyone's list when visiting.

Brett Grocke.

Eperosa Wines

Next, after heading down Krondorf Road, skirting the Eastern Range and no doubt impressing my travelling companions with my knowledge of the dirt back roads and disdain for Google Maps, we arrived safely at the shed of Brett Grocke and the wonderful Eperosa Wines.

Brett, another sixth generation Barossan, knows the scarps and dips of this region and the vineyards that lie within their folds better than most. Brett produces a range of stunning wines from the Krondorf (first planted in 1903) and Magnolia vineyards; the latter was first planted in the 1890s, at the base of Mengler’s Hill in Vine Vale.

Think soulful wines made with minimal intervention that reflect their place. When it comes to whites, there's a textural grenache blanc and a pristine old-vine semillon, and then there is the shiraz born from some of the oldest vines in the valley. These wines are superb, made by a winemaker that is thoughtful, deeply connected to his land, and producing some of the region's most exciting offerings. Another must visit.

Inside the Ollin Wines cellar door.

Ollin Wines 

There was one more visit before the ladies and I rolled back to Adelaide. We stopped in at the gorgeous, rustic tasting room of Ollin Wines, which is just 100 metres from Eperosa.

Ollin Wines is the new wine label from Jaysen and Tracy Collins, with their daughter Finella, who is studying winemaking and getting stuck into the cellar work with her father. You’ll know Jaysen from his previous winery Massena, and his offshoot wine brand, JC’s Own, but to say we were blown away by our visit to Ollin Wines is a bit of an understatement.

Firstly, the little cottage-turned-cellar door is such a lovely, welcoming place to try the wines, with its warm, woody and rendered stone feels. Cosy, light-filled and a great spot to snap a photo before tucking into some wines. 

My favourites?

The Ollin Oleta – chenin blanc and crouchen! Who knew?! It's a stunning, texturally slinky white blend with a bright minerality, savoury finish and a real ease of drinking. It is an absolute cracker.

There’s also a great Adelaide Hills chardonnay, a grenache rosé, a shiraz, a red blend, and a smokin' grenache from a single vineyard just below Angaston – it's bunchy, bright, spacious and complex, and perfectly captures the perfume and spice that we love in grenache.

It was with sadness that we pointed the car back to Adelaide. While we certainly made the most of a brief afternoon visit to the Barossa, time there never feels like enough, and more often than not I’m already planning my next visit on the drive south.

It does that to you, the Barossa. It gets into your blood. You need to get back, drink the wines, tread the land, eat the produce and carouse with the locals.

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Image credit: Standish, Ollin Wines.