Loading ...We spent Monday wine touring the Barossa Valley. Barossa is north of Adelaide, and it seems a much bigger wine growing region than McLaren Vale (which is south of Adelaide). Barossa had several little towns such as Gawler and Tanunda. Barossa is also home to some *massive* wineries such as Penfolds and Jacobs Creek.
We particularly enjoyed visiting Chateau Tanunda, which has three awesome features: 1) a croquet pitch for visitors to play upon; 2) super friendly and helpful staff; and 3) a selection of wines both of their own making and from tiny local producers who aren’t big enough to have their own tasting rooms.
After tasting at Tanunda, we were ready for lunch, and the staff there pointed us to a local restaurant called Vintner’s, which they raved about. It turned out they raved about it for good reason. The food was amazing — our mains included blue crab and avocado, grilled kangaroo, pork belly with ginger sauce and fried spring chicken — and the wine selection was naturally extensive with local wines. We had a Lagrein from Domain Day. I was not familiar with the varietal, but the folks at Chateau Tununda had spoken highly of Domain Day’s wines. The wine was lovely. (Later that day, at dinner at a very good Adelaide restuarnt called Cibo, we had a Dolcetto Lagrein from Highlands winery at dinner, which was also great.)
I know that I’ve read that Laja in the Guadalupe Valley is a “Bordeaux-style” wine country restaurant. While Vintner’s was very much its own restaurant, there was a certain spirit that these two restaurants seemed to me to have in common, particlarly in the materials and effect of their interior design and architecture.
