Wine tasting in the Barossa Valley
Summary
South Australia’s hot, dry summers and moderate winters, have allowed the Barossa Valley to develop into one of the world’s great wine growing regions that produce around 20% of Australia’s wine and with a focus on big bold reds. Maybe a little bit controversial, but its rolling hills are more pretty rather than stunning compared to the scenery of the Margaret River or wine spots in Tasmania, but its less than one hour trip from Adelaide and the compact cluster of wineries (its only 25km / 16miles long) make it a must for any wine fans in this part of the world
Two tips for the visit:
- Cycle – whilst we drove around, I think it would be a better experience cycling as its compact and relatively flat. Plus, it allows you to work off the wine and get more stuck in!
- Taking a tour – often better to avoid the mass tourism nature of a tour, but in the case of the Barossa it may be worth it as there is German heritage in the region that would be good to have explained to you
Experiences nearby
The below map shows experiences nearby with a colour that reflect the Overall Score of those experiences
Other Alcohol Tasting Experiences around the World
Score Detail
Background - how many times have you asked someone what a travel experience was like and the response was "amazing" or "awesome"? That response is nice to know, but it makes it hard to differentiate that experience compared to others. That is exactly what these scores are trying to do - differentiate the experience by giving a score out of 10 based on 6 categories and then giving an overall experience score
This overall experience score is calculated by: take the highest of the "Culture" or "Nature" score (1-10) + "Fun factor" (1-10) + "Avoiding the crowds" (1-10) + highest of the "Unique" or "World Famous score" (1-10). Then convert into a score out of 100
Extra detail - the logic being that I find all of the 6 individual scores important, but I don't want to mark an experience down just because it doesn't cover both "Culture" and "Nature", or because it isn't both "World Famous" and "Unique". Take the examples of Safari in The Serengeti and walking through Rome - they both appeal at opposite ends of the nature / culture spectrum, and you can have a fantastic time without needing to appeal to both sides. So, their overall scores aren't penalized for their lack of one or the other, and I've done the same for "World Famous" vs "Unique". But . . . I do think that the "Fun factor" of an experience is important, irrelevant of other factors, and so is "Avoiding the Crowds" (or where there are crowds that add to the experience). So, both of these scores are standalone