Welcome to one of the most comprehensive and accessible collections of regional wine data in the world. ‘Barossa Vintages: A Wine History from 1842’ was commissioned by the Barossa Grape & Wine Association in 2010, and covers more than 150 years of Barossa’s viticultural and winemaking history.
Barossa Vintages is not just a collection of historical highlights but a reference of past vintages including climatic graphs and tables, facts and figures from each year, vintage rankings and other essential data. Excerpts from ‘Barossa Vintages’, up-to-date climatic charts and vintage data are available in the sections below.
While table wines had been made in the Barossa since the late 1880s with some international success in the UK and France, the vast majority of production was fortified with brand spirit to assist in preservation. It is generally understood that the first ‘modern’ Barossa table wine was made by Colin Gramp at Orlando in 1947after he returned from World War II. Colin had visited wineries in France, Germany and California where he learnt about classic table winemaking techniques such as cool fermentation and oak maturation. His first wine was a 1947 Orlando Special Reserve Claret, predominantly made of Shiraz grapes with some Cabernet Sauvignon. This was the trigger for Barossa Vintage Reports to be published on an annual basis.