The Barossa Valley

The Barossa Valley lives, eats and breathes wine and the culture of the region is rich and unique. The Barossa is most famous for its rich, warm red wines made from cabernet sauvignon, shiraz, grenache or a blend of these and others. Vines in the region date back to the 1840s and some of these original vineyards still produce tiny amounts of incredibly intense fruit. To the east of the Barossa Valley floor lies the cooler Eden Valley, which produces wonderful riesling and fragrant, delicious reds that are sometimes a little more refined than the blockbusters from the Valley floor.

The Barossa is a marvellous place to visit and is probably the only wine region in Australia with its own, unique culture. This dates back to the first settlers in the area who became known as the Barossa Deutsch. Originally most of these immigrants were refugees from Silesia, then a part of Prussia, and it was they who planted the first vines on the valley floor in the 1840s. While the Germans settled on the valley floor, a handful of rather more aristocratic British settled the area around Angaston in the hills towards the Eden Valley. The two groups have always prospered together and food has been integral in the Barossa and German styled smoked and cured meats can be found in all the good butcheries.

The Barossa Valley has remained at the heart of the Australian wine industry for over 150 years – and not without reason; the climate, soils and elevation are all perfectly suited to growing grapevines.

The ‘Valley’ is actually a long plain that sits at an average of 230m elevation, with small hills on the western side and the steeper Barossa Hills leading toward the higher Eden Valley on the east. The region includes the towns Nuriootpa, Tanunda, and Angaston.

The Barossa Valley receives moderate rainfall of approximately 520mm (mostly falling during the winter months), and has high summer evaporation and low relative humidity. This ideal climate produces relatively low disease pressure, which limits the need for chemicals in the vineyard and also maintains the natural environment.

The soils of the Barossa Valley are predominantly red brown loams, which are non-cracking, well structured and relatively free draining - making them ideal for growing grapevines.

Saltram Vineyards

Saltram is situated on Nuriootpa Road just a kilometre from the town of Angaston in the Barossa Valley. Saltram draws fruit from its own 45 hectare Saltram Vineyard that surrounds the Saltram Winery and Cellar Door as well as from other vineyards throughout the region. These vineyards are spread over from the cooler hills of the Eden Valley to the warmer areas across the valley floor.

The Saltram Vineyard has many varieties planted, with the vast majority planted to Shiraz, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, alongside some smaller plantings of non-mainstream varieties such as Malbec, Petit Verdot, Barbera, Nebbiolo and Sangiovese.

Most of the Saltram vines are irrigated via drip irrigation and supported on a variety of trellising systems with more recent planting on single wire trellising and t-trellising systems. Drip irrigation was developed in the 1950’s to allow viticulturalists to grow grapevines in climates with low rainfall. Today however, vineyards with a range of climatic conditions use drip irrigation as it allows them more control over the amount of water the vines receive. This extra control allows them to stress the vine by not irrigating at certain times, and irrigating it at others in order to control the crop level and quality of grapes the vine produces.

The Saltram Vineyard also have a number of older vines that were planted in the 1950’s and 1960’s that are dry grown - not irrigated at all. Dry growing the grapes on these vines produces more concentrated flavours and a higher skin to pulp ratio which improves wine colour and tannin levels. In good years, select parcels from theses vines go into the renowned Saltram No.1 Shiraz and various other special blends that make up Saltram’s superb range of wines.