Seppeltsfield Estate Trust had submitted a statement of intent for the rejuvenation project with LRC, but council said more needed to be done in the way of community consultation before it could sign off on sending the document to the minister for approval.

Since then, Bruce Baudinet from the trust has reaffirmed the group’s commitment to working with LRC and the community to make sure the plan comes to fruition.

“We have got a vision for one of the great wine estates of the world, and it doesn’t happen overnight,” Mr Baudinet said.

“The message is fairly strong that we are in for the long haul and we have a very high level of commitment to the Barossa and a very high level of commitment to quality, and if we do anything that diminishes the value of what we have, we are just completely shooting ourselves in the foot.

“Everything we do there will be of the highest quality and we will be preserving and enhancing the character of Seppeltsfield and we will do it with the best possible designers and the best consultation with government and community.”

Mr Baudinet said the trust was already working closely with council and the community, and said councils decision would just be bringing the more detailed community consultation to an earlier stage in the planning process.

“We are very happy to be working with council in that regard, so it is just a matter of working through the DPA process that we are in,” he said.

LRC has also decided to defer considering any of the Seppeltsfield plan until after a public meeting in Nuriootpa on March 20 about the Barossa Protection Legislation.

Mr Baudinet said the trust had made submissions to the state government on the protection plan.

“What we are very keen to see is whatever happens in the Barossa, for it to go back to the roots of the principles of the legislation, which we very strongly support – which is protecting and enhancing the character of the Barossa,” he said.

“What we are looking for is to protect what we have and enhance it going forward, because you have got to have a future, we just can’t live in the past.”