Our people are our region.
Their personal stories are woven into the fabric of Barossa, shaping it into the rich and diverse community it is today.
Wherever you look in Barossa there is another story waiting to be told. Here are just a few.
A joyful life of wine, career shifts & accidental companions
Jo Irvine, winemaker and owner of Levrier By Jo Irvine, is someone you simply cannot put in one box. She constantly challenges the status quo, doing so by bringing a sense of fulfilment and joy to her personal and professional life.
Daughter to Barossa icon and globally acclaimed “King of Merlot,” James Irvine, and having built her own accolade encrusted career, most would assume Jo never left Barossa’s wine world… But you would be wrong. Jo was an operating theatre nurse for 18 years, hit with a pivotal early mid-life crisis. “I am never afraid to have a shot at new things. I went to university at 35 and I started two businesses. So anything is possible...”
When you ask a tried-and-true Barossan such as Jo, when they started working around the vineyard or making wine, the responses are pretty similar... fairly young!
“Does it count if I say I started at seven? Professionally I really started in 1993 so about 24 years or so, but I used to run around with my Dad from age 7 to 12 before I went to boarding school, I was in a winery, learning tastes, smells, flavours, sensations and tannins. So I suppose my learning started early.”
Acknowledgement of Country —
The Barossa is located on the traditional lands of the Ngadjuri, Peramangk and Kaurna people