All About Wine And Its Goodness!

The Barossa is famous for its red wine and it is in this region where Shiraz reigns supreme. Penfolds Grange, Australia’s most famous wine, uses a large percentage of the Shiraz from the Barossa. Henschke Hill of Grace, another high profile Australian wine, also uses Barossa Shiraz in its production.

The Barossa is located north of Adelaide, the capital city of South Australia. Something that surprises many people is that the Barossa actually encompasses two regions – the Barossa Valley and Eden Valley.

The Barossa Valley is generally less than 400 metres above sea-level and stretches from Williamstown in the south to Kapunda and Truro in the north. The rainfall here can be up to 50% less than in Eden Valley however The Barossa has the advantage of more fertile red-brown soil.  Temperatures are generally about 2ºC warmer.

The Eden Valley region starts from the north at Truro and goes all the way south, down to Mount Pleasant. On average the land ranges from about 400 to 600 metres above sea level with a majority of the wine growing land located in the higher sections of land. Eden Valley has much rockier, acidic soil than the Barossa Valley and also enjoys about 255mm more rainfall every year. Growing seasons in this region are longer due to the cooler temperatures.

So how does this affect the wine from these regions? Well to put it simply, these are great growing conditions.

There are about 550 growers in the Barossa, some of them sixth-generation Barossans.  The total harvest each season adds up to a whopping 55,000 tonnes of grapes which has been grown over 8,000 hectares of land.
A unique aspect about the Barossa is that it has managed to avoid phylloxera By avoiding phylloxera this has allowed growers to keep their root stocks and have some of the oldest vines in the world today.

While the Barossa’s 55,000 tonnes represents only about 5% of the national crush, it is premium fruit. Wines produced in the Barossa have a disproportionately high representation in the super-premium category, making it one of Austrlia’s most influential international wines.

Its easy to see why Barossa Shiraz is held in high regard amongst wine connoisseurs.

Follow the link for more information on Barossa Valley Shiraz .

Tags: barossa shiraz, barossa valley, barossa valley wine, barossa wine, shiraz

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 3rd, 2009 at 7:51 am and is filed under food and wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.