BRL hardy has opened the controversial new A$24 million Barossa Valley Estate winery in the environmentally sensistive Marananga district of the Barossa Valley. Barossa Valley Estate, a joint venture between 80 Barossa growers and BRL Hardy’s 50% share, expects the winery to permit growth from 3,000 tonnes to 9,000 tonnes per annum by 2008, based on planned increases in export sales from present levels of 50,000 mainly in the UK and US to 250,000 cases. While it is perfectly sensible that Barossa Valley Estate returns to the Barossa from its recent base in the Adelaide Plains, it remains questionable how such a large winery was ever permitted to be constructed in what had remained as a relatively unchanged and traditional Barossa farming landscape.
