Murray Street has been Tanunda's spine since German-speaking Prussian Lutherans laid the town out in 1843, and the buildings along it still show their working — the Tanunda Hotel from 1845, the old post office that now houses the Barossa Museum, three Lutheran churches within a short walk. The Mercure Barossa Valley is at number 235, and still trades under its old German moniker around town: 'The Barossa Weintal Hotel' ('Weintal' is German for 'wine valley'). The recently renovated 52 rooms and apartments are built for people staying more than one night — which, in the Barossa, is most people. Superior and Deluxe rooms run to 29 square metres; one-bedroom apartments stretch to 45 and the two-bedroom versions to 80, with full kitchens or kitchenettes, second bathrooms and — in the larger apartments — a pair of king beds plus a queen sofa bed. There's an accessible one-bedroom apartment available, and the hotel is pet-friendly on enquiry, too. Downstairs, Angus & Co. Barossa is the bar and grill, built around beef — Angus steaks, seafood, burgers and pizza, with a contemporary turn on steakhouse standards and local producers doing most of the supplying. The kitchen runs Wednesday to Sunday from 6pm, à la carte breakfast is served daily, and continental packs are available if you want to be at a cellar door before the queue forms. It isn't competing with the region's destination kitchens and doesn't need to; on a Thursday in July it is a fire, a steak and a Barossa shiraz you didn't have to drive to. The remaining facilities are simple but practical: free parking and wi-fi, a fitness centre, gardens and outdoor dining, a shared lounge with an open fireplace, and three meeting rooms — the largest 191 square metres and rated for 200 theatre-style, which is why the place does as much conference and wedding trade as it does weekender. Location-wise, Mercure Barossa Valley is a front door onto the Barossa's best walking. Château Tanunda has been up the road since 1889, Goat Square and its three German cottages are a few blocks away, and there are more than 150 cellar doors in the valley past that. Images: Mercure Barossa Valley.
