The Louise

The barossa just continues to deliver. Big beautiful suites with large beds and bathrooms backing onto an incredible view. The staff were quick and knowledgeable on the area, food and wine. The dinner was superb and extremely tasty. A ruby of the barossa. Well done!

The Louise remains an enchanting and comfortable retreat ideal for couples seeking privacy and vineyard immersion. Its villa-style suites are luxurious, and the setting is picture-perfect. However, it's not for the feint of wallet and while the fundamentals are superb, the experience stops just short of the ultra-luxury benchmark set by the group’s top lodges, particularly when it comes to culinary consistency and meticulous attention to those critical final 1% details for example dining-room windows have a cracking vineyard panorama but could do with a clean. For a relaxing Barossa getaway with style and comfort, The Louise is a strong choice — a few small tweaks would lift it from very good to truly exceptional.

This is a lovely property. All the public areas are spacious and beautifully decorated. There is a great outside terrace with views over valley and is good for roo spotting! We saw several. The rooms (we were in a Stonewell Suite) are very spacious and spotlessly clean. The bed itself is big and comfy and we slept well, although woke early as the sun comes into the room through the window right next to the bed. I suspect the rooms on the other side of the hotel are better as they get sunset rather than sunrise views. The breakfasts were great and the drinks and food arrived promptly. We struggled a bit more with the evening meal. There is a 4-5 course degustation menu with wine pairings, for which you are asked to allow 2 hours. If you dont want this, there is a very limited/basic alternative menu. However, when we asked to have a mixture of things off both menus (as there were things we didnt like on the degustation menu) this proved to be difficult and one night we didn’t get a proper meal. We opted out on our 3rd night and went into Tanunda for a meal instead. I want to be clear this is no fault of the hotel and they tried hard to accommodate our needs, I just think that unless you are a big foodie then you might find several consecutive nights of fine dining a bit much. The staff in general were friendly and helpful, and very knowledgable about the local area and wines. One hint - it helps to have an idea about what you want to do before you arrive. There was some mix-up with our travel agent so the hotel didn’t have contact details for us in advance, this meant we didn’t get the email they usually send out offering you experience options. When we arrived in the late afternoon it was already too late for the concierge to book experiences for the next day, so she had to wait until after 10am the next day when the vineyards open. Thankfully she was able to secure us a wine tasting that same afternoon at Hentley Farm. We didn’t mind where we went for the tasting but if you want somewhere particular then you definitely need to get organised and pre-book. The hotel has complimentary e-bikes to use. These need to be pre-booked and we found these a great way of getting around the local area whilst also being able to sample the wines! Otherwise you will have the expense of a private driver as the local taxi service can be a bit variable. Overall a lovely stay and I have no hesitation in recommending this hotel.

We stayed in the Seppeltsfield Suite which is the same size as a one bedroom apartment. We enjoyed the included breakfast in the courtyard at the front of the suite. The presentation was spectacular - food was delivered in tiffin boxes and in cast iron casserole dishes. The food was delivered via trolley which had all the food in an insulated container and was truly impressive. The baked beans where home made - not from a tin, orange juice was fresh squeezed, eggs and tartin were all delicious. The bathroom was huge and included a separate toilet, a double hand basin, deep spa bath and spacious indoor and outdoor showers. The bedroom had a comfortable king size bed and chaise lounges on the front veranda overlooked the vineyards. There is a pol area with chaise lunges and an honour bar for drinks. The four course dinner was excellent with a wide range of food and wines. Service was outstanding and all staff were friendly, professional and dedicated to providing a special experience for guests. The level of cleanliness throughout was fantastic. We had a pre-dinner drink at the outdoor area in front of the restaurant and watched a glorious sunset over the vineyards. The price reflects the uniqueness of the venue and is an unforgettable way to celebrate a special occasion - birthday, anniversary or honeymoon. For business travellers there is a dedicated boardroom and would be very impressive if entertaining international guests. The Boutique Gift shop includes a wide selection of gifts at a reasonable price.

An easy hour-ish drive from Adelaide, right in the middle of Barossa Valley, a short drive from the various wineries in the region and just around the corner from Torbreck. For this trip the main destination was to see Southern Ocean Lodge (Kangaroo Island) but with the flight times not connecting very well, this ended being my "transit" hotel.   The hotel is a short drive to most vineyards and just down the road from Torbreck.  The room was cozy with the front courtyard space bathed in sunlight competing with the backyard looking out to the vineyards.  Great minibar-- well stocked with all kinds of wine and snacks, comfy bed, spacious bathroom, good selection of reading material (lots of lovely travel related coffee table books) the best part for me was probably the Appellation restaurant, wonderful ten course menu with wine matching, a three hour affair....    Oh boy.. Thankfully the room was just stumbling distance.  Only issues - wifi in restaurant almost non existent.  99.9pc of guests won't care, but so used to being connected to wifi all the time.