Kies Family Wines: What to Know Before You Visit
TL;DR: Kies Family Wines is a sixth-generation family winery in Lyndoch, at the southern gateway to the Barossa. Tastings are complimentary and don’t need booking for groups under eight, the on-site Monkey Nut Café serves Barossa-inspired food, and the cellar door is open 9am to 4pm daily.
Lyndoch is the first Barossa town you hit driving up from Adelaide, and Kies Family Wines sits right there on Barossa Valley Way. Which makes it either your first stop or the one you drive straight past on the way to Tanunda.
Most people drive past. That’s a mistake for a practical reason: it’s an hour from Adelaide, you’ve been in the car, the tasting is free, and there’s a café on site. Starting your day here rather than pushing another 20 minutes into the valley means you arrive at the rest of the Barossa having already eaten.
It’s also the first scheduled stop on our Wine and Food Lover’s Barossa Valley Tour, for the same reasons.
A sixth-generation family story
The Kies family have been farming in the Barossa since 1857. Six generations, on and around the same country.
The cellar door came much later. John and Bronie Kies opened it in 1985, and it started as a tin shed. That detail matters more than the usual heritage framing, because it tells you this was a working farming family who moved into hospitality, rather than a wine brand built around a story.
Today the business is led by Michael and Tina Kies, with the next generation of the family actively involved in the winemaking and the day-to-day running of the estate.
The cellar door experience
The tasting room is in an 1800s ironstone cottage on the property, looking out across the vines toward the Lyndoch Ranges.
Tastings are complimentary, and groups under eight don’t need to book. Walk in, sit down, work through the range.
That range covers the Barossa staples done properly: Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache and sparkling wines, alongside small-batch and limited release bottlings that don’t leave the cellar door. If you’re the sort of person who reads back labels, ask what’s open outside the standard list.
Larger groups and structured experiences (winemaker sessions, tawny and shortbread pairings, high tea) do need booking.
Monkey Nut Café and Kies Teas
The Monkey Nut Café opened on the property in 2006 and serves Barossa-inspired dishes and grazing plates using local produce. It’s a proper café rather than a token food offering, which is unusual for a cellar door this size and is a large part of why the place rates so well with visitors.
Kies Teas is the other one people don’t expect. It’s a small tearoom tucked among the historic vines, with views across the Lyndoch Ranges, where you choose the tea you’d like to drink in the Monkey Nut Café. If you’ve got someone in the group who isn’t drinking, this solves a problem that most Barossa cellar doors don’t bother to solve.
Awards and recognition
- #1 Attraction in the Barossa Valley on TripAdvisor
- Silver Medal, South Australian Tourism Awards
- TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Award
- South Australia’s Best Family Business (Small Business)
The TripAdvisor ranking is worth reading correctly. It reflects visitor experience across the whole Barossa, not wine scores, and it’s a fair signal of what this place is good at.
Practical visiting info
| Address | 1303 Barossa Valley Way, Lyndoch SA 5351 |
| Opening hours | 9:00am to 4:00pm daily |
| Tasting | Complimentary, no booking needed for groups under 8 |
| Food | Monkey Nut Café on site, plus Kies Teas |
| Nearby | Directly beside Barossa Park, which hosts AFL Gather Round matches |
| Distance from Adelaide | About one hour |
Worth knowing: Barossa Park next door hosts major sporting and cultural events, so check what’s on if you’re visiting during Gather Round or a festival weekend. It’s busier and parking is harder.
Making it your first stop
Kies works best as the opening move of a Barossa day. You arrive from Adelaide, you eat something, you taste without a booking or a fee, and then you head deeper into the valley toward Tanunda and Angaston with the day still ahead of you.
That’s the order we run it. Kies Family Wines is the first scheduled stop on our Wine and Food Lover’s Barossa Valley Tour, with pickup from Adelaide and a driver who handles the rest of the day. Nobody in the group has to nominate themselves as the one who isn’t drinking. Feel free to explore our other Barossa Valley Wine Tours to find the experience that best suits your tastes and plans.
Frequently asked questions
Open 9am to 4pm daily. Check ahead around public holidays and major events at Barossa Park next door.
Not for groups under eight. Groups of eight or more, and structured experiences like the winemaker session or high tea, do need booking.
Yes. The Monkey Nut Café on site serves Barossa-inspired dishes and grazing plates. Kies Teas, a small tearoom among the vines, is also on the property.
Six. The family have farmed in the region since 1857, and the cellar door opened in 1985.
Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Grenache and sparkling wines, plus small-batch and limited release wines available at the cellar door.
Yes. It’s one of the more family-friendly cellar doors in the Barossa, with the café on site and Barossa Park next door. Anyone under 18 can’t taste alcohol.
About an hour by road. Lyndoch is the first Barossa township you reach coming up from the city, which is why it works as a first stop.
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