The Crafters Hotel, Adelaide Hills

The wine room’s a winner at this fine gastro pub.

The Crafers Hotel wine room

Back in the day, Aussie country pubs kept a few rooms upstairs for dusty travellers. Catering arrangements were basic and the company in the front bar often dangerously lively. Nowhere more so than at The Crafers Hotel, opened high in the Adelaide Hills in 1839. This was a favourite watering hole for the hard-living “Tiersmen” – many of them escaped convicts or runaway sailors – employed to fell the great trees of the stringybark forests cloaking the steep ravines above Adelaide. A local historian tells of the pub being held up by a gang of hapless bushrangers, who helped themselves to the bar and were captured in situ, “dead drunk”.

Crafters Hotel, Adelaide Hills

Times have moved on at this landmark South Australian hotel. The upstairs rooms are five-star and catering has ratcheted up a gear or two with a 4000-strong wine list and seductive wine room that will have oenophiles salivating. Junior sommelier Becky may be new to the Crafers team but she already knows her way around this glittering room and the adjoining super-premium, securely locked wine “library”. She’s nabbed a key from the chief sommelier and we squeeze inside, tiptoeing around crates to gaze wistfully at wine I could only afford if I sold my car, children and dogs. “Never mind,” says Becky kindly, “we have plenty of excellent wine by the glass.”

Set just below Mount Lofty, an easy 20 minutes from downtown Adelaide, the Crafers was refurbished three years ago and that astonishing wine room is based on a collection accumulated in Europe in the ’90s by a couple of the pub’s owners.

Adelaide Hills. Picture: Getty Images

With great bones of locally quarried stone, the hotel sports a contemporary look that is both cosy and chic. In the bar there’s a fireplace, handsome leather chairs and pastries on the counter. The adjoining bistro has the feel of a conservatory with a lively open kitchen and copper pots all in a row.

My table has an excellent view into the wine room, which whets the appetite for French fare courtesy of new head chef Stephane Brizard (or Frenchy, as he is known in the kitchen), who grew up on a pig farm in rural France. The menu retains its pub-friendly roots, so schnitty sits happily alongside confit de canard.

Crafers Hotel, Adelaide Hills

If you’re slightly overwhelmed by the Big Book of Wine (so hefty it requires its own table), there’s a scaled-down version. “We’re not snobby about wine,” one of the owners tells me. “A $14,000 bottle of Petrus with a plate of chips is fine by us.” Fine by me too, but unfortunately I’m rather attached to my dogs and children.

By 7pm the place is packed and I’m beginning to wonder if the din can be heard in the upstairs bedrooms. I need not have worried; atop the grand old staircase, all is quiet. The rooms are well insulated and I hear only a murmur of activity later in the evening (perhaps someone uncorked that Petrus).

Crafers Hotelo, Adelaide Hills

Each of the seven guestrooms has high ceilings and those at the front have French doors opening onto a handsome terrace, although traffic noise means you have to time it right to enjoy a quiet glass of wine. I’m in “Heritage”, with a king bed and huge bathroom of slate and marble with big tub, under-floor heating and lashings of Aesop unguents. All the important details are covered: local, best quality chocolates and in the armoire, robes, minibar and tea and coffee (instant but there’s a machine in the shared kitchen).

Through its long, colourful history the Crafers has never been more popular, winning a swag of awards including the 2018 Australian Hotels Association’s “overall hotel of the year”. And while today’s clientele are much better behaved than the Tiersmen, I’d wager they’re having just as much fun.

Perfect for: Wine lovers or anyone wanting a convivial base for exploring the Adelaide Hills.

Must do: Grab your hiking boots and pop up the road to Mt Lofty summit to strike out along marked bushwalking trails. Or pack a picnic and explore Mount Lofty Botanic Garden and its stunning magnolias, ferns and rhododendrons, which are particularly lovely in autumn.

Dining: Continental breakfast is available in the upstairs communal kitchen; on weekends there’s cooked breakfast downstairs. Later, wend your way along the Hills’ picturesque country roads to Uraidla, where Lost in a Forest, a “wood oven wine lounge” in an old church, dishes up superlative pizzas; or book a table for lunch on the deck at the lovely Mt Lofty Ranges Vineyard.

Getting there: Twenty minutes’ drive from downtown Adelaide.

Bottom line: Rooms from $220.

crafershotel.com.au