Adelaide Wine Country Recommendations?

A good friend of mine will be in Australia in November and wants to visit some good wineries. Like me, she prefers small, artisanal, family wineries to the Yellow Tail facilities (can’t call it a winery). Can anyone recommend any good places to visit?
Thanks!

I’ll start. Rockford in the Barossa. And ask if she can bring home a case of their basket-press shiraz for me

Dean Hewitson has a winery in Adelaide. I can get you in touch with Peter Barry of Jim Barry wines in Clare Valley. Henschke would be another. Langmeil.

Michael,

I presume that she will have a car; otherwise it is very difficult to get around.

My recommendations (which are far from exhaustive):

Adelaide Hills

Ashton Hills (the complete antithesis of a corporate winery; known for their Pinots)
Hahndorf Hill (owned by the guys who set up Mulderbosch in South Africa; make Trollinger, Dornfelder, Gruner)
Leabrook Estate
Longview
Ngeringa

McLaren Vale

Coriole (also good for lunch)
Kay Brothers (great spot for a picnic)
Paxton
Samuel’s Gorge

Barossa/Eden Valley

Rockfords (has already been mentioned, but it really is a must visit)
Teusner (call Kym Teusner or Dave Brookes first to arrange a tasting)
Turkey Flat
Two Hands
Henschke
Winter Creek (vines grown in the back garden; tasting around the dinner table kind of place)
Charles Melton (on the larger side)
Peter Lehmann (OK, they are big; but the range of small lot wines they have available at cellar door only makes the trip worhtwhile)
Kaesler (also on the larger side)

Clare Valley

Sevenhill Cellars (oldest winery in the region)
Jeanneret
Paulett’s
Cardinham
Mount Horrocks

Langhorne Creek

Lake Breeze

If you need any further info, or would like reccos on places to stay or eat then drop me a line.

Cheers,

Nayan

Please feel free to get in contact with us at Hewitson. We love meeting new people. Here are our contact details:
Dean Hewitson
Hewitson Pty Ltd A.C.N. 083 608 075
66 London Road
Mile End SA 5031, Australia

Phone: +61 8 8443 6466
Fax: +61 8 8443 6866
Mobile: 0418 890 229

Also check ot Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Hewitson/154532172782?ref=ts" onclick=“window.open(this.href);return false;
and Twitter
http://twitter.com/home” onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Hey everyone,

A great big MERCI to all for the info, I’ll forward it on to my friend.
Cheers!

G’day Michel, Nayan, Deano and all,

Happy to help out with a visit to Teusner wines for your friends visit…I can also tee up visits to any on the wineries that are members of the Artisans of the Barossa if you are keen…none of us have cellar doors so it is tasting by appointment only.

http://www.artisansofbarossa.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I can also give lots of tips on eating and general carousing in the region

I’m in New Zealand for two weeks towards the end of November but if I’m around when you visit I’d be happy to organise a visit to the private tasting room at Rockford…if I’m not around I can call winemaker Ben Radford up and arrange something.

Happy to take you for a spin in the ute and show you some awesome old 100+ year old vineyards around the region also.

Either PM me here or send me an email at dave at teusner dot com dot au

Cheers

Dave Brookes

Merci all! I’ve forwarded this thread to my friend and she’s psyched to visit you guys. She’ll be contacting you directly.

Awww man, this is going to kill me, but, there is one place I absolutely loved visiting on my day in the Barossa. Well, two. Two hands rocked. That was an amazing tasting in the bakehouse. The other one I will have to dig into my notes. If any of you are Aussie heads its a tan label with burgundy script on the top.

I sneak off to Adelaide when I visit Australia yearly. I am more than happy to help with food recommendations, etc as well if she is interested.

Leslie

Hello everyone, this is Veronica, Michel’s friend coming down to Australia. Using his account to quickly send a great big thank you for all of your suggestions.

I spoke with my brother and have made plans to spend the weekend of Nov 21-22 in Adelaide wine country. Trying to decide between McLaren Vale and Barossa given the time we have. While we have quite open minds and taste buds, we do tend to gravitate towards old world, burgundy style (reds/whites) and rhones so any advice you could provide in pointing us to small producers we would enjoy, would be much appreciated. Also, any guidance on arranging visits/tastings (including info on any fees) would be great help too.
I can be reached via this post or directly at vmoreno212 at yahoo dot com
Thanks in advance for your suggestions
PS:: If you have any Melbourne based cooking programs that you could suggest, as I LOVE to cook, would be fantastic too. Interested in taking some hands on Australian cooking classes. Also, love love love to visit local food markets so pointers there are much welcomed too.

Adelaide has a wonderful farmers market right behind the Hyatt. Big food court, lots of regular food stalls and stands selling all sorts of fruits and veggies. You will love it!

Melbourne also has a much larger farmers market but it cannot compare with the quality of Adelaide.

I am about to board a plane or I would type more. Feel free to find me here or on Facebook. Michael and I are Facebook friends.

Leslie

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to offer a great big MERCI to everyone who offered assistance to Veronica. She is heading Down Under next week and has planned her itinirary thanks to your suggestions. She is really looking forward to this trip (a 2+ week vacation in Australia can’t be that bad!) and asked me to say thanks.
Cheers!