Over 200 years ago, British, German, Irish, Polish, and Dutch settlers came to Australia and were greeted with lands that were ideal for raising livestock and fertile soil to support agriculture. Before long, they realized that the soil, air moisture, climate and sun, provided an ideal terroir for viticulture. Since the 1800s, the South Australia territory put the country’s winemaking prowess on the international wine map to become one of the revered wine capitals of world. Today the Barossa Valley is mentioned in the same breath as Bordeaux, Tuscany or Napa. The region is an oenophile fantasy land of world class wines, the Barossa valley wine tour and indulgent ways to experience one’s love of the grape such at the annual Barossa Camino.

Wine is big business in Australia. Today, the Yarra Valley, Hunter Valley and most recently Margaret River, produce what are now regarded among the finest new world wines. With all due respect to the aforementioned, the pinnacle of winemaking in Australia is found in the rolling hills and bucolic lands of South Australia; the Adelaide Hills, McLaren Vale, Coonawarra and grande dame of Australia’s winelands, the Barossa.  Without argument, this is best Australian wine region with esteemed names of Australian’s wine emanate from this region including Henschke Hill of Grace, Penfolds Grange, Seppeltsfield, Jacob’s Creek and D’Arenberg.

The conditions for viticulture are among the best in the world, with a rich diversity in geography and climate, which allows the region to produce a vast and superior offering of grape varieties. In fact, 80% of Australia’s premium wine originates in the region and it is also home to the oldest vines in the county. This is wine country and in the blood of inhabitants.

A sublime wine heritage encounter that takes place once a year is the Barossa Camino, a pilgrimage through the region’s most honored vineyards and with stewards who made them so. The Barossa Camino is traverses the stunning landscape of the Eden Valley of the Barossa, between their most revered vineyards, Hill of Grace, Hutton Vale Farm and Mount Edelstone, and into what can be described as nothing less than wine heaven.

Part of the Annual Tasting Australia Adelaide culinary festival, this Barossa valley wine tour and camino fully immerses wine enthusiasts into the tradition of two of Australia’s wine industry’s royal families, the Henschke and Angas clans. These two dynasties have been crafting wine for six generations since the mid-1800s. Generations of the Henschke and Angas families join the Camino with grandparents, adults and precocious preschool children clumsily traipsing along the way. The. little ones, in their pint size wellie boots, are the eigth generation and will one day take over the family business.