Jacob’s Creek Visitor Centre: In the Barossa Valley Region of South Australia

When Bavarian settler Johann Gramp planted his first vines near an old cottage and cellar back in 1847 little did he know that the grapes grown on the banks of Jacob's Creek in the Barossa Valley would precipitate a flood of Australian wine to the world.

The little sign marking Jacob’s Creek might be the most photographed spot in the Barossa Valley but the location says so much more about the history of the Valley and the marketing power of Australian wine in the Twenty-first Century.

The story of one creek's dramatic impact on the Australian and international wine scene is told at the newly opened Jacob's Creek Visitor Centre. You can sit down to eat in the cafe restaurant, browse through the cellar and, of course, taste the wine and learn the story of what is now the world's most popular Australian wine brand.

“In 2001 there were 5.3 million cases of Jacob's Creek sold overseas. What you're looking at is 60 to 70 million bottles of Jacob's Creek being consumed outside Australia.”

The story of that flood is literally at your fingertips courtesy of the Centre's interpretive display.

“So Johannes Menge, self-taught mineralogist and agricultural economist was responsible for the mineral boom that has sustained South Australia since the 1860s. But he was also responsible for the settlement of the Barossa Valley by German immigrants and the beginning of the wine industry there. That industry has since grown to become South Australia's major income earner - it all started at Jacob's Creek.”

Menge's reports prompted the arrival of settlers like Johann Gramp and his wife Eleanor and soon a German community took root in the Barossa soil along with their vines.

“Over millions of years soils have washed out of those ranges onto these flats and you can see down in front of us the very deep alluvial flats with vines growing. It's those alluvial flats that produce very high quality grapes.”

Grapes that make fabulous wines, which attract wine lovers from the sixty countries where Jacob's Creek is sold. Like John and Lyn Thorogood from the UK.

“This is a bit of a pilgrimage for us. We want to see where it all starts from. From here, to the off-licence to us. We actually go to France to get it - we go through the tunnel and stock up.”

Brits travelling to France to buy Australian wine. Surely it would have been all too much for old Johann Gramp and Johannes Menge. But you can sample their story and the wines that sprung from their vision at the Jacob's Creek Visitor Centre.

Here's some other info on Jacob's Creek Winery and Visitor Centre

Jacob's Creek Visitor Centre
Barossa Valley
Between Rowland Flat and Tanunda
Open daily 9.30am - 5pm
Free admission