Australia: the grape outdoors

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AN HOUR beyond Adelaide, that very English Australian city of churches and rightangles, South Australia takes on a very northern European feel. It was here in the Barossa ("hill of roses"), more than 150 years ago, where entire Lutheran communities from Poland and Germany came to to escape religious persecution. They set sail for South Australia, and packed with their Bibles were vines.

Thanks to those early pioneers whose names read like a top restaurant wine list: Henschke, Lehmann, Wolf Blass, Seppelt, Yalumba the Barossa is now recognised as one of the world's top five wine destinations, alongside European regions such as Bordeaux and Tuscany.

However, one of the most influential names in the Barossa is probably also one of the least well-known. Johann Gramp first set foot on Australian soil in 1837 not on the mainland but on a rocky, dusty outcrop at Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, 100km off the South Australian coast. He worked as a labourer and baker for three years, then headed for the mainland, bought land and in 1847 planted his first vines by the red river gums at Jacob's Creek.

Gramp's first wines laid the foundation for what was to become Orlando Wines, now one of Australia's largest wine companies. Its massive winery including many decades-old, white-washed stone buildings sits about a kilometre from those original vines, behind a row of lovely old cottages built for the Gramp descendents at Rowland Flat on Barossa Valley Way.

The award-winning Jacob's Creek Visitor Centre (recently named South Australia's top tourism winery and restaurant), brings a 21st-century steel and glass modernity to the company's historic presence in the valley. It sits next to rows and rows of vines at the end of a winding road of vineyards, river crossings and gum trees, past the native animal enclosure which is home to an assortment of Aussie wildlife, including wallabies, kangaroos and emus.

Speaking of kangaroo, the visitor centre's restaurant Jacob's dishes up a divine kangaroo fillet (matched with Jacob's Creek Reserve Shiraz) and the crocodile (sesame crusted with green pawpaw, mango and snow pea shoots) is worth a bite too. You could just stop here for coffee and a cake, or a casual wine-tasting session, but with the floor-to-ceiling windows offering views towards the Barossa ranges, you'd be wise not to rush. Because there are dozens of wines to try, you'd also be wise to come with a designated driver or as part of an organised tour (of which there are plenty to choose from). Make sure you try the acclaimed Steingarten riesling and St Hugo cabernet sauvignon, then pay homage to the man responsible with a glass of the Johann, a suitably monumental blend of shiraz and cabernet.

Serious wine enthusiasts can also arrange structured tasting sessions at the visitor centre or buy rare older wines from the Back Vintage Cellar. At the restaurant, you might also find yourself in the company of Colin Gramp, the great-grandson of Johann and a frequent diner at Jacob's; he's often joined by a group of friends and wine industry colleagues known as the Crusty Barossans.

Now in his late 80s, he was the last of the Gramp family involved in the management of Orlando Wines, having taken over from his uncle Fred as managing director. (Colin's father Hugo had died in a plane crash in 1938 that also claimed the lives of fellow wine industry leaders Thomas Hardy and Sidney Hill Smith, of Yalumba).

Good food is as much a way of life in this region as wine, which helps explain the steady stream of cars heading along a gravel road just off the main road between the appealing towns Taununda and Nuriootpa (all old churches and cottages), about 15 minutes drive from Jacob's Creek.

Just follow the sign pointing in the direction of Maggie Beer's Farm Shop. This Australian foodie, who settled here in the 1970s with husband Colin, now oversees an epicurean empire which includes cookbooks, TV (you'll find her charming and accessible show The Cook and the Chef on Sky's Food TV), cooking classes, pheasant farming, a cafe and the Maggie Beer range of products. One of the delights of her shop is almost everything is available to sample, which makes walking away empty-handed nigh on impossible and frankly beyond explanation. (Recommendations: rasberry and pomegranate jam; Barossa tomato sauce and Pheasant Farm pate, all of which you can bring home as long as you declare them.)

Whatever your faith, you'll find plenty to give thanks for in the Barossa.

Wyndham Estate

IT'S SAID of pioneer George Wyndham that when he arrived in Australia in 1827 from England, he couldn't find a decent steak so he started grazing cattle. When he couldn't find a decent cricket team he had 13 children, and when he couldn't find a decent drop to drink, he started making wine.

The days of beef and bats and balls are a long-time past, but you'll still find about a million cases of wine bearing Wyndham's name being produced each year.

Soon after arriving in Sydney on Boxing Day, Wyndham decamped to the rolling hills and river plains of the Hunter Valley; a three-hour drive, or a two-week walk away (yes, he walked there to check out the land before making his purchase).

On his 2000 acres (810ha he raised animals, grew crops and planted 600 vines, the first vintage of which, says his diary, "made a good vinegar". In 1830, in the fields around his cottage, Wyndham tried again, and planted Australia's first commercial planting of shiraz, the grapes he dubbed "black clusters", cementing this spot as the birthplace of Australian shiraz.

The Wyndham Estate winery no longer produces wine the grapes are grown in the Hunter but the wine is made in South Australia but it's deservedly one of the most popular cellar doors in the Hunter Valley. Its colonial architecture, as featured on the Wyndham wine labels, large function rooms and lovely gardens make it hugely popular as a wedding venue, and each October its natural amphitheatre is the venue for Opera in the Vineyard, and concerts featuring international recording stars each February. And on the first weekend on each new season, it's home to some of Australia's top chefs and gourmets for its Season's Plate Lunch.

But to find a more personal reminder of George Wyndham, you'll need to ask for directions. Just a few minutes walk away, on an intersection of browning paddocks and fields of vines is Wyndham's home, with its two imposing columns one of the earliest Greek revival buildings in New South Wales. You might expect hordes of teary-eyed Aussies making a pilgrimage to this beautiful spot, clutching bottles of Wyndham Estate Bin 555, but no. Unfathomably, given Wyndham's legacy, his home, now owned by Australia's National Trust, is scarcely sign-posted and almost derelict. It's enough to make you drink ... though just be sure it's shiraz.

* Angela Walker was a guest of Pernod Ricard. 

- © Fairfax NZ News