What is the Best Time of the Year to Visit the Barossa?

It’s a common question we hear when on the road interstate, hosting dinners or attending food and wine events. 

We feel lucky to call this part of the world our home. Its distinct seasons bring with it ever changing landscapes and textures. Vineyards move through green lushness, to autumnal colour, to gnarled, exposed and bare. The ebb and flow through cool, wet winters to hot, dry summers brings with it the joys of being able to enjoy all manners of food and seasonal produce. At any time of the year, there’s a change, a challenge and a new beginning.

However, there is always a favourite child. As far as we’re concerned, the best time to visit the Barossa is also the best time to visit South Australia. Autumn.

Here are 3 reasons why…

1) Vintage

Whilst first harvests of fruit typically take place in the latter months of Summer, vintage really ramps up from March onwards. As the sun rises during the crisp and calm early mornings of Autumn, the region is dotted with teams of grape pickers, filling their buckets with the year’s bounty. The grapey, winey smell of vintage is evident in the air, as is the nervous tension of winemakers who know what work is ahead of them.

The beauty of vintage in the Barossa is that visitors who drop into a small cellar door are likely to see some vintage labour in action out the back. You might even meet the winemaker, and get a taste of a juvenile wine as it passes through its first stage of fermentation.

2) Barossa Vintage Festival

Every two years, the Barossa celebrates Vintage Festival, bringing in over 70,000 visitors to the region. With roots back to 1947, Barossa Vintage Festival in 2023 (19^th – 23^rd April) will play host to 75 events. A celebration of fine wine, epicurean delights, music, arts and historical and cultural experiences, this is Barossa at its very best.

3) South Australia’s Event Calendar

South Australia is known as the Festival State and never is this more evident than during ‘Mad March’ with both the Adelaide Festival and Adelaide Fringe in full swing, and a host of other events as well. With so much going on, it’s easy to piggy back a Barossa visit onto one of the many other events happing in and around Adelaide. An easy one hour drive north from the CBD , you could be going from sipping Shiraz to a stage show on the same day.

Adelaide Fringe – 17^th February – 19^th March 2023
The biggest arts festival in the country, transforming Adelaide and greater South Australia.

Adelaide Festival – 3^rd – 19^th March 2023
An opera, theatre, dance and visual arts spectacle, taking place primarily across the city centre and parklands.

WOMADelaide – 10 – 13^th March 2023
An open-air festival celebrating cultural discovery in the heart of Adelaide’s stunning Botanic Park.

Gather Round  – 13^th – 16^th April 2023
The inaugural festival of footy hits South Australia, all matches of Round 5 of the AFL season will be played in Adelaide and surrounding regions.

Tasting Australia – 28^th April – 7^th May
For the epicurean-minded, 10 days of foodie-focused events held in Adelaide and in regions.