Chateau Tanunda, Tanunda, SA
Chateau Tanunda, a major icon of the Barossa Valley, is Australia's largest and oldest Chateau (est. 1890) and is one of Australia's First Growth Chateaus. The Chateau Tanunda Estate, with it's grand blue stone building and beautifully kept surrounding gardens is a wonderful place to visit and is up there among the finest wine estates and Chateaus in the world.
The Chateau is a two storey building constructed in 1890 of brick and bluestone from the Bethany quarry (where Bethany wines are now situated). It is a most significant and visually impressive building. At the time of building it was the largest building in South Australia and the largest winery in the Southern Hemisphere. The Distillery was constructed in 1890 and the Bond Store was constructed in 1911. Both buildings incorporate similar design elements to the Chateau. The Chateau entrance has recently been restored with the laying of cobblestones right around the Chateau and the sunken Garden to the rear is fast becoming a tourist attraction in its own right.
The Chateau had for many years been shrouded and surrounded by massive tank farms and accompanying expanses of concrete. These have been stripped away and extensive landscaping undertaken to enhance the Chateau building and public function. Some 6,000 tonnes of cement were cleared from this area along the rear of the Chateau. Much of the cement removed from this area was broken up and used to build up the mound on which the cricket oval was engineered. The expanse of 2000 square metres at the rear of the Chateau, which was once an unsightly cement tank farm, has been cleared, and a classic sunken garden built allowing public access and enjoyment of the northern façade of the Chateau.
In 2000, Chateau Tanunda acquired over 5,000 square metres of the historic ballast stones that were auctioned from the de-commissioned abattoir at Gepps Cross. These stones were laid by local tradesmen on walkways and roads throughout the Chateau grounds, and in particular, the Forecourt.
Removal of 3,000 tonnes of concrete made way for the creation of a competition standard croquet lawn, adding to the Chateau's eclectic sporting theme. The first Chateau croquet tournament took place in the Spring of 2002 in conjunction with the South Australian Croquet Association. The croquet lawn is frequently used by visitors to the Chateau.
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History: The Barossa Valley is widely recognized as Australia’s premier wine region. The picturesque town of Tanunda, located 70 kilometres north of Adelaide is the recognized heart of the Barossa Valley and its principal tourism town. Chateau Tanunda is located some 500 metres from the main commercial street of Tanunda. The Chateau (as it is known by Barossans) is situated on the highest point of the valley floor and affords panoramic views of the Barossa Valley to the Barossa Ranges, providing an attractive, picturesque setting, definitive of the charming character and ambience of the Barossa.
Since the mid 1850’s the Barossa had been planting vines. However, viticulture was carried out on a small commercial scale on a subsistence basis. With the demands created by the impact of the phyloxera epidemic in Europe in the 1870’s, Australia was suddenly thrust into the world market with huge demand for wine at very good prices.
At this time a group of prominent Adelaide businessmen including GF Cleland, Johan Basedow, Sir Samuel Davenport and four other shareholders approached the farmers of the Barossa with a plan to capitalise on this opportunity. They understood the Barossa had 560 very good growers of grapes with an undisputed wine culture. These businessmen built the biggest wine making building in the Southern Hemisphere to process the grapes of these 560 growers. They financed the venture, shipped the wine on their boats to England and France and maximised on the shortage in Europe. The farmers benefited from this arrangement year after year. The only proviso was that they contracted all their grapes to the Chateau for a minimum of 10 years.
A company was formed, called the Adelaide Wine Co. Later to be called Chateau Tanunda Pty. Ltd and the Chateau was built in 2 years 1888-1890. The granite came from Bethany Quarry, where Bethany Wines are today and the bricks were hand made on site. It was at the time the largest building in South Australia larger even than Parliament and the largest winery in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Chateau was styled on the huge Bavarian households and grand buildings of Hamburg of the 1850’s to 1870’s, which in turn, had borrowed their architecture from France – forming a hybrid French Chateau inspiration. The building is 86 metres long, 40 metres wide with a distinctive 21 metre tower. On the lower floor, the cellar is some 7 metres high. With walls 2-3 feet thick, the Chateau was cut 8 metres into the side of the hill so that the south facing cellars would be perfectly positioned for ideal temperature control. For its time, the building of the Chateau was a massive undertaking.
It has a storage capacity of 5 million litres – 7,000 barrels in the downstairs cellar, 3,000 upstairs and over 14,000 in the Bond Store. It was the largest winery in the Southern hemisphere and had the largest brandy storage under Bond. The whole estate was driven by steam boiler until 1958 and the famous Chateau whistle was the call to start or stop work across the valley. There are still some 300 growers in the valley. By far most of these are descendants of the original 560 growers who had a direct link with the Chateau.
