WARNING - HONEST REVIEW!!
The Mount Lofty Rangers Vineyard has all the amazing things of a Adelaide Hills Rangers Vineyard going for it, the view, the wine, the allusive nature of the hills and more...
HOWEVER, the Mount Lofty Rangers Vineyard has managed to take all these magnificent parts of South Australia, which we are all so proud of and pluck the very roots of what good Australian's stand for right out.
So to begin, My mother is a South Australian Artist who is well known to many art galleries, wineries and people with an artistic eye, who was begged to hang her paintings in the Mount Lofty Rangers Vineyard for the month of November-December 2015. Prior to delivering her artwork to the self-glorified winery we decided to have a lovely meal there for fathers day, which I will expand more on below.
FOR THE ARTISTS:
When we dropped the artwork off we were met by the male owner who, for use of a better word, was just plain RUDE (the antagonist of all that is Australian). We were made to hang the paintings around the owners having a whinge about previous seemingly innocent customers, which seemed quite unprofessional to us, but hey we don't own a winery - what do we know about customer service apart from being customers and dealing with customers in our own professions.
On picking up the paintings (5 weeks after we dropped them off), we yet again were succumbed to the rude nature of the owner to find out that the paintings had been hung for a total of 2 weeks, removed by the owners (without permission by the artist) and placed in the sunroom. Yes, thats right - the SUNROOM, in direct sunlight just to damage the art that was not sold (all of them).'
My mother, being the caring, creative lady she is, took all the crap from the owners and just wanted to leave this be and move on to another winery maintaining her credibility and reputation.
However, the winery was poor enough for me, her daughter, to write my first ever review!
FOR THE CUSTOMER:
When we arrived we did notice the cutesy look of the place which was in the perfect location, amongst lush trees and vineyards so our initial expectations were met. We asked if we could try some wines, being a winery and all we thought this was expected, but were met with "we haven't started tastings yet - we only have lunch, you can pay for a wine taste afterwards" - interesting concept, that is to allow people to purchase the wine and lunch without a single taste in an area surrounded by wineries who allow FREE tastings at any time - BOLD.
The young staff, were lovely and the only asset the Mount Lofty Rangers Vineyard seemed to have, aside from the dog at the front who greeted us by shoving sticks in your leg hoping for a bit of attention. The way the young waitress then proceeded to interrupted our chatter (which is absolutely fine to do) BUT then decided to read the whole menu for us, adding personal touches obviously created by the owner, to entice our appetite, which took a whole 20 minutes to do. Alas it had worked, we were intrigued, we ordered squid, a share plate for entree and a lamb dish which sounded worth salivating over.
When the meals came out, we thought they were playing a joke but soon realised by the serious and sympathetic looks on their faces that this small - AND I MEAN SMALL - portion of squid, was actually for us. I kid you not, one mouth full was the extent of the meal size for both entree and main. I am all for paying extra for a quality meal, irrespective of size, but WOW, this meal was $17-$38 of non-quality, non-quantity.
Ok aside from the small portions and overpriced menu, inability to drink wine tastings at a Winery until convenient for the owner, and VERY VERY rude owners mind you, this Mount Lofty Rangers Vineyard was at most average, if you like that sort of thing.
PROCEED WITH CAUTION TO THIS WINERY - ARTISTS BE WARE. read more