Prince Charles visits Barossa with Duchess of Cornwall

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Prince Charles visits Barossa Valley:

Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, have stopped off in Barossa to taste the local Australian wine while on a tour of the region.

Charles, who once had his Aston Martin converted to run on biofuel made from wine, visited Seppeltsfield winery in Barossa Valley after flying into Adelaide from the UK.

Camilla is known to take an interest in wine has visited several English vineyards nearer home, as well as opening a £2m English wine research centre in southern England last year.

The couple toured Seppeltsfield and visited the ‘centennial cellar’, which holds a barrel of every ‘Tawny’ vintage from every year since 1878.

They also tasted the 100-year-old Para Vintage Tawny 1915, as well as small samples of Tawny – Australia’s version of Port – from their own birth years. It’s a tour that normally costs A$100 (£46.50) per person.

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Seppeltsfield has also christened two commemorative birth year barrels for Prince George and Princess Charlotte, Charles’ grandchildren and the children of Prince William and Kate Middleton.

Prince Charles and Camilla at Seppeltsefield Winery in Barossa. Credit: Daniel Kalisz / Pool / Getty

Not everyone in Australia is likely to be so pleased about Seppeltsfield’s gestures to British Royalty, given the political debate in the country about whether the Queen should continue as Australia’s head of state.

But, the tour is being seen a welcome publicity boost for Australian wine, and for Barossa in particular, at a time when winemaker profits continue to be under pressure in many cases.