Mt Bera Vineyards has just completed a stunning revamp of its three-storey cottage cellar door in Gumeracha. The venue offers beautiful garden seating, balcony and private dining, and wine tasting amongst breathtaking views of the Torrens Valley.
Greg and Katrina Horner have worked tirelessly to evolve Mt Bera into a fully organic and biodynamic space offering great wine and great service. Greg Horner says, “We’re trying to step the quality of every single thing we do up as high as possible.”
The duo finished the winery in mid 2023, before fully revamping the cellar door into a distinctive three-level space. Each level will offer a unique experience for diners, wine tasters, and visitors. It’s a place filled with rustic charm and modern touches, fit for the perfect day out in the Adelaide Hills.
“We’ve just finished the renovations,” Horner said. The space has two underground levels. The very bottom level is now a private dining room with raw rock faces and brick arches detailing the walls. The middle level is Mt Bera’s cellar door space offering tastings and casual food. The upper level is the restaurant, offering indoor and balcony dining, headed by chef, Manuel Prieto.
The venue also offers an expansive outdoor garden area with shaded seating, an outdoor bar and wood-fired oven. It’s a tremendous space with the restaurant seating 70 people, the downstairs cellar, 26, then 14 spaces in the private dining room and room for up to 200 in the garden.
“One of the things that I think is really important is the environment, and the space,” Horner says. “What we’ve tried to do is make it very very warm and inviting. A real warm, friendly type of environment without coming off pretentious.”
“We just want to give absolute quality – that’s been our aim from the beginning. As we’ve evolved I think we’ve got the perfect offering right now, where we’ve got that level of sophistication in our food but at the same time it’s a very easy environment to relax in and a very friendly place for people to come to.”
“It’s got a beautiful outlook from the restaurant balcony. You can see through the treetops across the Torrens Valley. It’s just magnificent.”
The restaurant will be serving up an a la carte lunch menu with small and large plates on offer. Diners can choose to eat entrees and mains, or order share plates to eat with family and friends. The cellar door offers a selection of the small plate menu, or platters to enjoy while tasting Mt Bera’s beautiful range of wines.
Horner says they want to offer plenty of food options while guests are wine tasting. “I’m not the biggest fan of only having platters at cellar doors. I think they’re boring,” Horner says, with a laugh. He wants to make sure people are fed!
Chef Manuel Prieto makes beautiful empanadas and ceviche. He also makes delicious pizza bases that cold cure over several days, ready for the venue’s outdoor wood oven.
The venue is currently testing out its garden sessions, with live musicians performing in the lush outdoor lawn space. Horner hopes to start running live music events a couple of weekends a month over the holiday period.
“We bought Mt Bera, the property in 2008, then we’ve evolved from there,” Horner said. “When we bought it, it was very limited. We had three varieties: pinot, merlot and cab sav. All the fruit was sold to Penfolds at the time – apart from a very very small parcel that had been made into wine from the leftover bits that weren’t contracted. So we evolved from there.”
Greg and Katrina later purchased the former Chain of Ponds cellar door site, which is now host to the beautiful new Mt Bera cellar door. They subsequently planted a considerable set of new vineyards on both properties. Mt Bera is now home to a host of varieties including shiraz, gruner, pinot noir, tempranillo, and plenty more.
Mt Bera is the name of an old homestead, originally home to an apple orchard that exported to Covent Garden in the 1800s. The property was converted from Apple orchards to vineyards in 1997.
It’s not just food, not just wine, not just the spot, it’s a combination of parts, including the service and the people that are involved, that makes Mt Bera such a stunning location.
Mt Bera Vineyards
WHERE: 198C Torrens Valley Rd, Gumeracha SA 5233
WHEN: Wednesday – Sunday, 11 am – 5 pm
For more information, visit the Mt Bera Vineyards website.
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