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Category: Tour Diaries

‘Eli’s new release is sure to be stunning if this show is any indication’
Live review with ARIA award winner, Jeff Lang.

Music touring is such a wonderful way to discover Australia  and experience a diversity and beauty in both nature and culture, which really is quite astounding. One such ‘golden’ region on this great southern land is that of the already renowned Barossa Valley in South Australia.

The rich hues of the landscape and visual contrast of the region (especially sunrise and sunset), could be akin to walking through an oil painting, a master piece, in stillness, as art imitating life and life imitating art. The old adage, ‘time stood still’, is an experience often to be had here in the Barossa.
Eli Wolfe Barossa ValleyThe music tour had brought us to a place of craftsmanship, culture and wine making mindfulness, a winery suitably named Rockford Wines in the Barossa and we were eager to explore to say the least! This concert was also celebrating the release of the next new single and part of a national tour.
At this concert, Wolfey performed with Australian guitar maestro Jeff Lang. A gentleman and passionate artist. A sizable stage is set up in the court yard area nestled into a back drop of sandstone, timber and iron with vintage wine making equipment and towering eucalyptus trees turned ‘mystical’ by the light of dusk.
Eli Wolfe Barossa ValleyThe audience of the evening also had the ‘extra’ culinary experience of generous wine tastings and delicious food, which made for an extremely satisfying night all round. The following day we drove the colourful local district, with plenty of great eating places and beautiful, old, Lutheran Churches and impressive vineyards.

ABOUT ROCKFORD WINES
Says Robert O’Callaghan – The Founder/Winemaker: ‘In 1971 I purchased an 1850’s stone settler’s cottage and outbuildings on five acres of land in the village of Krondorf, which sits in the shadow of the Barossa Ranges, in the heart of the Barossa Valley. ‘

Eli Wolfe Barossa ValleyThe vintage shed is equipped with plant from the pioneer era – I collected these valuable pieces when they were discarded by other Australian wineries as they modernised.  This allows Rockford to carry on the traditional Australian winemaking techniques, but more importantly the winery is the same scale, age and pace as our growers’ vineyards.

To me the winery is not just a building but a large piece of sculpture with Barossa wine running through its veins, hopefully when you walk into the courtyard you’ll instantly feel a sense of all that it represents.ELi WOlfe Barossa ValleyDominique with Luke Willis at Rockford Wines

quick facts'The early focus of the Barossa wine industry was on the production of Riesling, a German wine grape from the Rhineland'.

A lot of these early settlers came to South Australia  from the north-eastern portion of the northern lowlands of Germany. This comprises an area which borders the upper Oder and its tributaries and was at the time of their migration the German province of Brandenburg, Posen and Silesia. These territories had once formed the eastern marches of the German empire and from the twelfth century onwards they were intensively settled by German peasant colonists moving eastwards beyond the River Elbe.

DID YOU KNOW:
Barossa German (German: Barossadeutsch or Barossa Deutsch) refers to a dialect of German, which was once very common in South Australia. It takes its name from the Barossa Valley, where many German people settled and words from Barossa German have entered Australian English.

The Barossa is also home to kegel, a variety of nine-pin bowling, which takes place on indoor lanes (Kegelbahn), and is based on traditional German games similar to alley skittles.[7] The Barossa town of Tanunda still features the Tanunda Kegel Club, founded in 1858.

Deutsch-Australier, (Germans), constitute one of the largest ethnic groups in Australia, according to the 2011 Census.

Eli Wolfe Barossa Valley
Auf Wiedesehen – See you again!