More to the Barossa Valley than wine(2)

    However, tasters will note Bethany has won national and international awards for its GR Reserve Shiraz. The winery's also popular for its white port - great with cheese. A sixth generation winery, it was founded by the Schrapel family and built in a quarry which once provided the stone for local buildings, including the Chateau Tanunda Winery.

    At Penfolds Winery in Nuriootpa I enjoyed a different part of the winemaker's art, with the option to blend my own wine. The company that produces one of the world's most famous wines, Grange, also allows up to 80 visitors at a time into a laboratory to put together their own version of its Bin 138, a blend of Shiraz, Grenache and Mourvedre grapes that Penfolds produces each year.

    Visitors are encouraged to experiment with different percentages of each grape variety (calculators provided to help them add to 100) before each takes away a souvenir 375ml bottle with their name on the label.

    There are several galleries in the area, offering some interesting art from local artists and from local Aboriginal groups.

    The Peter Franz Gallery in Lyndoch offers ceramics, glass and silk painting from a local group called the Muligas - a Top End term for a group of men and youths. The gallery owner is a photographer, who shoots, prints and frames all his own work on the premises.

    The Barossa Living Gallery in Tanunda showed some beautiful modern jewellery, maps and ceramics.

    At the Barossa Regional Gallery, also in Tanunda, work was beginning on a local art prize, with canvases stacked in a large hall.

    A gallery on the second floor houses a small but moving tribute to those of the Barossa who fought and died in both world wars, including a relative of the Bethany Winery - Driver A G Schrapel, who died of illness as a POW in what is now Thailand, in 1943.

    Only a short detour on the drive back to Adelaide is Birdwood, home of the National Motor Museum. Enough to tempt any petrol-head in the group, it offers a fascinating insight into Australian history, housing the Talbot, the first car to cross the continent from south to north, in 1908.

    Back to the Future fans can enjoy the sight of a real DeLorean. The focus for many of the area's car buffs, the museum hosts the annual Bay to Birdwood Run for about 1,500 classic cars.

    But anyone driving this close to the Barossa will have to remember - wine and driving don't mix.