We actually missed the main Barossa Valley turnoff while driving up, and came in through Seppeltsfield. This was beneficial anyway, as I wanted to take the Seppelts Winery facilities tour, and arriving this way saved us a lot of time. Purchased a 98 Botrytis Gewürztraminer.

There is a reason this photo is missing.

There should be a lot more photos here, but due to the PATHETIC QUALITY of film processing in the Northeast US, the negatives are damaged, and the prints were even worse. Some of the prints were creased and mangled, and we've even gotten prints back with a footprint on them! The processing place is "seeing" what they can do. It's the same every place we try. Hear me well developers: we shoot a lot of film, 41 rolls on this two week trip, we are getting a digital camera and a photo quality printer. We have HAD it with all you.

This is the Peter Lehmann Winery. Nice place, spacious tasting room, decorated with interesting pieces of artwork. Also home to a very friendly dog, I thought it was a retriever, but was told he was a "biscuit eater". He'd be your friend for life if you dropped him a piece of the crackers they had for clearing your palate. I thought I took a picture of him, but it seems I didn't.

This is the wrap around porch they have out front. Lovely view of the stream and gardens. I enjoyed the grape vine that has been grown along the top. An appropriate touch. We wound up purchasing a 98 Noble Semillon here. A sweeter wine, comes in the smallish 375ml bottle.

From there, we went to check in at the Langmeil Cottages Bed and Breakfast. A lovely place. Spacious units, with comfy bed, TV, sofa, kitchenette, front porch to sit on. Other amenities were the spa, bicycles, BBQ, and I think I saw a pool. Being that we seemed to be visiting during the off-season, we had the place to ourselves. I would have liked to have stayed and just relaxed a while.

Even here, there were grape vines. This time, adorning the car port. What was nice about that, was that it kept the interior of the vehicle cool and out of the sun. Not that the days got too hot in March.

This was one of the views out the back of the place, looking towards Tanunda. Later, we travelled up the hills in the distance.

After checking in, we were off to tour the surrounding areas by car. Guess what? We saw vineyards...

...and more vineyards.

But we finally reached our destination, Mengler's Hill Lookout. This is east of Tanunda, looking back to the west. The place we stayed is somewhere in the middle of the picture. In the foreground was a curious sculpture park.

I didn't understand it, too abstract for me. My taste in art runs more towards scenic vistas, like this one. Another view from Mengler's Hill, looking more northerly up the valley, towards Nuriootpa.

This was a picture which just struck me as I walked past. I wound up walking back to shoot it. I like the contrasts with the dark clouds and the illumination of the tree by the setting sun.

The next morning, we were off to a couple of more stops before leaving the Barossa. This was the Rockford Winery on Krondorf Road. They have a wonderfully charming tasting room, exceptionally friendly staff, and some wines that I rather enjoyed. The whole place lends itself nicely to photography.

Directly overhead were a couple of rows of oak barrels. I was told this is where their PS Marion Tawny Port was being aged. We bought a bottle of this as well, as a gift to take back home. We also purchased a 2000 White Frontignac for ourselves.

Rockford uses a basket press for making their wines. We were lucky enough to be there during pressing operations. This is a basket full of pressed grape skins, I believe they call this the Malc, but don't quote me on that. I certainly would visit Rockford again. If they want me to put a website together for them, let's talk... I need a reason to go back to Australia!

Next, we crossed over the main highway to check out the Keg Factory. This is a place which manufactures kegs for making wine, but also other related items such as wine racks and bars and stools. They had some really nice stuff, but we couldn't pack it in our suitcases.

Then we drove into Lyndoch, and made our last Barossa stop, the Yaldara Winery. A fascinating collection of buildings here. Supposedly, there is an art gallery in one of them, but we had to cover 300km before this day was out, so we couldn't peruse it.

This is a hallway leading to the tasting room. I don't know if these barrels were still in use or just display, but they added nicely to the atmosphere. We wound up purchasing a bottle of Highcliff 99 Muscat Spätlese here, although the bottle says Simeon Winery. It was open for tasting, we liked it.

They had a nice terrace setup here for sitting. It was a grape vine that had been grown up this big trellis. It provided a lot of shade. I think it would be a neat thing to do in my backyard over the patio. Anyone can build a deck... I'd rather do things differently.