Mount Lofty House’s new Sequoia hits the suite spot
Take a sneak peek at the brand new lodgings at this popular South Australian landmark.
During this strange year of COVID living, the owners of the new Sequoia lodge in the Adelaide Hills have had ample time to bed down the first phase of their project. Although the property won’t officially launch until early next year, when the reception lounge and bar, spring-fed onsens and infinity swimming pool are complete, Sequoia’s 14 swish Escarpment Suites have been open for business since winter, giving Adelaideans the opportunity to experience the country’s newest luxury lodge. With many borders to South Australia recently slamming shut and reopening, visitors from interstate have a lot to look forward to when they’re able to visit.
Poised above the pretty Piccadilly Valley in the grounds of the historic Mount Lofty House hotel, but with their own guest relations team and private entrance, the suites offer a cinematic view of the picturesque hills from lounge, bed and bath.
Although the lodge is only 15 minutes from downtown Adelaide, we might just as easily be deep in the country. Nights are quiet and star filled here, and in the morning the mountain is coddled in fog. When interstate and international visitors return, they’ll find a dream setting, smack in the heart of a premium wine region (the hotel has its own vineyard) but surrounded by forest teeming with wildlife. You’re likely to spot koalas and kangaroos from the suite terraces.
The lodge is named for the three giant redwoods planted in the mid-19th century when Arthur Hardy built Mount Lofty House. The Hardy family was famous for its parties and lived a life of “feudal splendour”.
Since purchasing the property in 2009, David Horbelt has invested up to $25m in reviving those halcyon days, redeveloping the house and constructing the lodge. He has overhauled the food and beverage offering, restoring the old cellars, overseen by ebullient Mauritian-born sommelier Liinaa Berry, and established the fine dining Hardy’s Verandah Restaurant headed by executive chef Jin Choi. (Lodge guests can dine in the restaurant or have dinner delivered to their room.)
The renovation of all 40 guestrooms in the main house was completed in September, and a cosy champagne and martini bar will be ready soon. To cater to growing demand from lodge guests, the hotel day spa is being relocated from the stables to larger premises.
The new suites are light, airy and elegant, with highly advanced intuitive technology. Step into the bathroom in the middle of the night and low lights come on automatically and the glass wall frosts for privacy. Everything (blinds, lights, fire) is controlled from a small wall-mounted pad that’s easy to use; play music or stream from your device with a couple of taps.
With an open-plan design, the suites snuggle into the hillside, stepping down into a sunken lounge and out on to the terrace. This space is dominated by an imposing fireplace built from local honey-coloured Basket Range stone; the floors and decking are from spotted gum. Bespoke furniture and fixtures are locally made, from the JamFactory bedside glass pendant lights to the beautifully crafted leather compendiums. And there are full-size unguents from Hills-based Jurlique in the indulgent bathroom, where a huge tub affords views across the suite to the valley. The shower head is a sleek, space-age contraption that offers jets and sluicing and goodness knows what else — perhaps the pouring of a morning cuppa.
Above the bed there’s a moon window to view the night skies and the mattress rises for reading comfort. The TV pops up out of a cabinet, keeping the rooms elegantly clutter free. In conjunction with this elevated accommodation experience, Sequoia has developed a series of immersive touring experiences for guests, working with the charming Simon Burley, owner of bespoke operator Coast & Co.
Early morning finds me coffee in hand, climbing aboard Simon’s Land Rover bound for the Barossa. We’re in for a treat. Well, I am; Simon’s driving. Ahead lie some serious wines. The cherry on the cake is that Simon has rustled up a perfect spring day as we dip and weave through forested hills. Vines are budding and spring sap rising, and the Barossa looks a picture.
First stop is Elderton Wines, where co-managing director Allister Ashmead takes me on a tour of his old family home, which these days is the company’s attractive cellar door (the log fire is crackling, and the lawn tennis court rolled in preparation for a local tournament). The homestead was built in the early 20th century by Samuel Elderton Tolley, who made brandy, drank brandy and lived like a lord. We’re sitting in his old dining room to taste a flight of Elderton’s best estate-grown, single-vineyard wines. Out front is the fabled Command shiraz vineyard planted in 1894. The vines are rarely irrigated — “a picture of suffering”, says Allister — making for exceptional wine.
From here we cross the valley to Torbreck, a winemaker with a dedicated following in the US whose premium wines, made from small pockets of dry-grown old vines in the northwest Barossa, sell out in moments. We’re in for a special treat, tasting grenache direct from the barrel in the winery before heading up the road to the pretty cellar door, which incorporates an 1850s settlers cottage with long views over a sun-drenched olive grove.
Our tutored tasting culminates with the RunRig shiraz viognier (from six parcels of vines dating back to the 1850s) and the legendary The Laird, about $750 a bottle, or $35,000 for the 27-litre Goliath nestled in the cellar door’s wine room.
After lunch at the popular Vintners, it’s off to church, not for penance and a snooze as you might imagine but for more wine at the illustrious Henschke (2021 Halliday Wine Compendium winery of the year). It’s hard not to fall under the spell of this place. The stone family homestead and the cellar door, housed in the 1860s grain barn, displaying family photos dating back six generations, tell the story of one of our great wine dynasties, tucked away in lonely paddocks at the bottom of the world.
Our tour begins in a vineyard that’s attained almost mythical status: Hill of Grace, overlooked by the pretty Gnardenberg chapel. In the Barossa, church and wine are inextricably linked and the Henschkes still make altar wine for the parish. We’ve disinfected our shoes, so are able to wander among these gnarled old “grandfather” vines, dating back about 160 years; little buds are appearing on the twisted limbs, attesting to their dry-grown vigour and Prue Henschke’s viticultural skills, deploying organic/biodynamic methods.
Back at the cellar door we taste a full flight (including the incredible 2015 Hill of Grace); I’m provided with a personalised catalogue and the tasting becomes all the more special when Stephen Henschke drops by.
And so home. But not quite yet. Just when I think I can’t sample another marquee wine, Simon heads off-piste on to a narrow gravel road climbing high into the Barossa ranges. The sun is setting and sheep are calling when we arrive at Steingarten (stone garden), Jacob’s Creek’s “secret’’ riesling vineyard, terraced down a steep hillside. Simon produces a chilled bottle of riesling from the back of his vehicle and we toast the end of a remarkable day. Beneath a crimson sky, the view runs beyond the valley to the hills near Tarlee across some of the oldest vines on earth. “New World” wine region indeed.
In the know
Until the lodge’s communal areas are up and running, bookings for the Escarpment Suites are available on the Mount Lofty House website. Nightly rates range from $750 to $1400 depending on the day of the week and include breakfast, minibar and a bottle of the property’s sparkling wine.
Coast & Co’s Ultimate Barossa day tour includes exclusive experiences and lunch at Vintners restaurant; $2500 for two, $4000 for four.
Christine McCabe was a guest of Sequoia.
Readers are advised to check the latest state and territory border restrictions before travelling to South Australia.