Three days in the Barossa & three wise men, the Artisans of Barossa

I’m back in Adelaide tonight after three days in the Barossa. 

My last appointment today was with Ian Hongell at Peter Lehmann whom I first met at the winery in 2004.  An opportunity to reflect on how much the Barossa has changed.  

A key aspect of this is the explosion in the number of boutique producers like Kym Teusner, Greg Hobbs and Penfolds’ former Chief Winemaker John Duval, all members of the Artisans of Barossa.  As Duval points out in my short video of the three here, when he started out in 1974, you could count on two hands the number of producers whereas today there are well over one hundred. 

The outcome?  An exciting diversity of wines as characterful as its vines (pictured, aged Grenache vines at Seppeltsfield). Really looking forward to writing up my notes.