Barossa Chapters Generations Barossa Chapters Generations Barossa owes much to Europe. Its name, cultural instincts, languages, food, viticultural and winemaking heritage, are all transportations that have been moulded and honed by 175 years of Australian innovation. Cover Image: Jeff Hoffman & Grandson Byron Barossa One could be forgiven for thinking Entrepreneurs with big visions built white wines such as Riesling and Barossa was settled by the Spanish. stone wineries and started making Chardonnay as well as medium body Its name can certainly be traced fortified “ports” and “sherries” as well reds such as Shiraz and Cabernet. back to the windswept Barrosa Ridge as fine table wines called “claret” and Now Barossa is the most recognised in the Spanish region of Andalusia “hermitage” and “burgundy”, paying name in Australian winemaking, due to where in March 1811 Lieutenant homage to European tradition. Barossa its forgiving viticultural environment, General Thomas Graham of the became the largest wine-producing its treasure-trove of century old British Army defeated the French region in Australia by the turn of the pre-phylloxera vines and its six Marshal Victor, during the Napoleonic century, sustaining a community of generations of grapegrowing and Peninsular Wars. grapegrowers, winemakers, cellar winemaking heritage. hands and coopers and earning Graham received a peerage and significant export income for the state But it has also evolved over 175 years was named Lord Lynedoch but it was of South Australia. into much more than a wine region. his young aide-de-camp Lieutenant Old Silesian cultural food traditions William Light who was to remember Through the 20th century Barossa had continue to be celebrated, such as the the name. When he was appointed its booms and busts – Imperial demand fermentation of meats into sausage Surveyor General of the new colony of crashed during both wars and in the and wursts; salting and smoking South Australia in 1836 and discovered post-war 1960s and 1970s customers hams and bacon; the preservation of a verdant valley he named it Barrosa wanted sweet sparkling wines such as fruits and vegetables such as pickled – and a slip of the pen by a public Barossa Pearl and Cold Duck. onions and dill cucumbers and the administrator gave the region its Finally Barossa settled on what its soils maintenance of age old baking unique name, Barossa. and climate do best – ripening red wine traditions: sour dough breads, pretzels grapes – and from the 1980s onwards and streuselkuchen. However it was not Spanish but English its fame grew for its full bodied Shiraz and Silesian settlers who pioneered and Cabernet, Grenache and Mataro. There are also European music traditions the region. The English, including the In the late 1990s during an still maintained such as brass bands and colony’s founder George Fife Angas, international boom in demand for men’s and women’s choirs and Barossa took over pastoral sheep and cattle Australian wine, the Australian Wine continues to be the epicentre Lutheran runs in Eden Valley, east of Angaston; and Brandy Corporation decided to faith in Australia with more than a and the Silesian settlers – mainly define Australia’s regions along similar dozen steepled churches dotted across peasant farmers and artisans fleeing (but less restrictive) lines to Europe’s the valleys. Prussian religious persecution – settled appellation system. the Valley floor at Bethany, Langmeil, This colourful culture has attracted Tanunda and Nuriootpa. The Barossa’s winemaking geographic thousands of new settlers over indication zone was formalised in 1997, subsequent generations, continuing After experimenting with a range comprising two regions: the warmer the immigration that started in the of crops, from flax to tobacco, the Barossa Valley “floor” specialising in 1840s, making Barossa a vibrant, Silesians found the Mediterranean red wine and the cooler, higher altitude diverse and exciting contemporary climate suited wine grapes. Eden Valley, which focussed on fine Australian community. Barossa Chapters Generations Barossa Generations Maintaining a There is a generational connective it celebrated its 168th anniversary in focus on the tissue that holds together the past, the 2017 with the launch of the $350/bottle future while present and the future of Barossa. It is The Caley Coonawarra Cabernet reflecting on the the link between the old, the new and the – Barossa Shiraz testifying that it foundations of the as yet unrealised. remains confidently positive about the future under the guidance of the past has enabled It is a bloodline – six, and in some places Hill-Smith family. Barossa to ride seven generations, of inherited seasonal out the cycles knowledge and experience and folklore. Tellingly, it is the growers that have of wine industry It is a shared point of origin – Silesian weathered the years better than most fad and fashion. Lutheranism, English Anglicanism but family wineries. Its cohesive also the vibrancy of Italy and Spain and community and even new world Asia come together to The English and Silesian families that six generations melt the pot in Barossa. first arrived in the 1840s – Angas, of viticultural Ahrens, Atze, Barritt, Boehm, Both, and winemaking Barossa has always been a cohesive Burge, Burgemeister, Braunack, place, its pioneers recognising early on Evans, Gerlach, Graetz, Gramp, commitment that regionality was mainly about taking Habermann, Hage, Hahn, Haese, provide a rare a collaborative stance on the things Henschke, Hoffmann, Hueppauff, John, sense of origin that were important: protection of land, Kies, Keynes, Kleemann, Koch, Krieg, and place in a consistency of story and family. Lindner, Lehmann, Liersch, Mader, changing world. Milde, Munzberg, Obst, Pech, Rohrlack, Generational co-operation brings unity Schulz, Schmidt, Schrapel, Schiller, where there is fracture, and common Stiller, Schwarz, Semmler and Zerk – purpose where there is a daunting mix of continue to fill the church pews and individual interests. phone books of the Barossa six or seven generations later. Classic wine regions are built on the efforts of generational commitment But generational change doesn’t come and among them, Barossa is a story of without constantly re-setting the watch. persistent family endeavor as well as corporate investment. Back in December 2008, two hundred members of the Barossa wine fraternity: While the Gramps of Orlando, the winemakers, wine marketers, grape- Seppelts of Seppeltsfield, the Salters growers, viticulturists, coopers, tank of Saltram and the Penfolds family makers and assorted tractor salesmen succumbed to the cycles of business all gathered in a shed called Old and were bought and sold like mere Redemption, high on a hill overlooking chattels by investors, their names remain Peter Lehmann Wines and the synonymous with Australian fine wine. Para River. But one multi-generational family winery still calls Barossa home – Yalumba. The Like so many regional gatherings that oldest family owned winery in Australia had gone before, they were there to The early 2000s is just another pendulum swing. In 1983, one of Australia’s most respected viticulturists said the Barossa would only be growing cabbages by 1990. Yet the Barossa, is still one regional name which is recognized worldwide. We still make the world’s most unique Shiraz, and the best Rieslings from the Eden Valley. We still have some of the oldest plantings of vines on the planet and an unbroken history of grape growing and winemaking to rival parts of Europe. I still see a great future for the Barossa, a future with enormous potential.” Peter Lehmann, speaking at the 2008 Generations Lunch debate the region’s future in the face of the economic ravages of a fiercely competitive marketplace and structural imbalances bloated by corporate and private interest greed during the early 2000s. Conversation ranged from the emerging wine consumer opportunity in Asia, to the challenge of marketing a regional brand that was in danger of being corrupted. Without deserting its authentic origins and inheritance, Barossa knew it had to keep repositioning itself for a fast- changing and ever-challenging new commercial era. So the Generations Lunch became a new Barossa tradition, now held in December prior to Christmas – the last chance to reflect and share before another impending vintage. In an era of increasing cultural and commercial alertness, modern Australians are more inclined than ever to search and try to understand the how, why and where of origin. In the evocative, indigenous place names of the region – Tanunda, Nuriootpa, Eudunda and Kapunda – and among the next generation of its community, Barossa continues to derive nourishment from the past that will help to shape its future. Learn more and watch videos at barossa.com/wine/barossa-chapters. Barossa Chapters Generations Barossa History and Heritage For a New World The German mineralogist Johannes there was an error in the registration Menge had already reported back to process and “Barossa” it was to be. wine region, the London-based South Australian The region’s German heritage is obvious Barossa has a Company that the fertile area north to any visitor, but there is English blood long history and of Adelaide would surely support in its parentage as well. The likes of distinguished “vineyards and orchards and immense Samuel Smith and Walter Saltram made heritage. fields of corn which are matchless in their mark alongside German pioneers the colony”. One