Mount Lofty House, Adelaide Hill, SA
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When I arrive at Mount Lofty House and the impeccably dressed concierge opens my car door I feel I’ve stepped through time. A gleaming white Rolls Royce Phantom and a yellow and black Roadster have parked ahead of me and the ladies and gentlemen in their fashionable 1920s short skirts and impeccably cut suits are clattering excitedly up the stone stairway and through the warm Victorian splendour of the entrance of this luxurious boutique hotel.
Mount Lofty House was built in 1852 for Arthur Hardy, who planted the first grape vines in the Adelaide Hills in the 1850s, and started the party tradition that remains to this day, a tradition of being a gathering place for people who come to enjoy the food, views, and simply to escape.

I love the entrance and glimpses of daylight streaming through many doorways along the long corridor. The entrance and the corridors are covered in large, breathtaking paintings of Australian flora by well-known local artist, Stephen Trebilcock. Their colours sizzle in the quiet air.

The suite I am shown into is simply stunning. The room is perfect, set as if for a photo shot with beautifully arranged furniture, small vases filled with fresh flowers, green velvet armchairs, and white timber shutters framing a view of a wide sandstone terrace overlooking a large blue pool surrounded by tall, majestic trees.

I’m aware of something half-forgotten, of something I didn’t know I had missed until it returned, my mind shifting into a kind of relaxed gear. At moments like this in a nice space, carefully thought out and designed for ease and comfort, I truly appreciate and understand the power of our surroundings.

They say that the house has a few resident ghosts but the one that spoke to me is the hotel’s party spirit. Channelling Phyrne Fisher from Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, I dress up and stroll languidly into the famous wine cellar underneath the restaurant. The musty smell of earth and the wine bottles reposing like sleeping beauties is almost overwhelming. I’m led into a small room with walls of carefully curated wine bottles. Here the head sommelier offered a few glasses of wine to taste and ponder.  As the bubbles from the Méthode Traditionelle sparkling wine made from the Pinot Noir & Chardonnay grown on the Mt Lofty Estate burst against the back of my tongue, I thought that here in this belly of the house you could sense, smell and taste its history and spirit.

Having had this profound thought, I glide through a few heavy doors and wallpapered rooms, where the eyes of the old-fashioned family portraits hanging on the walls follow me rather eerily, and finally exit onto an outdoor lawn area framed by a traditional English garden. Waiters dressed in crisp black and white uniforms offering trays holding delicious finger food and cocktails greet me.

I am just in time for the murder mystery dinner.

There is so much to experience and explore in and around this place. I invite you to visit as soon as you can to recharge and get ready for your next adventure.