Hollick Estates (Winery and Cellar Door) — Attraction in Penola

Not a review I wanted to give but I think feedback is important and plenty of things could be easily improved here. My wife and I visited Hollick for a quiet lunch midweek and were greeted by friendly staff who proceeded to inform us it was essentially the first day for the chef and most of the staff. This was unusual and perhaps served to manage expectations. The meal was unfortunately a long way off from our expectations with the following my feedback:

I showed up wanting the seafood options from the menu on the website. The menu provided was similar but all seafood was removed with the reasoning being the new chef. Update the website. As such the menu was VERY limited and one of the entrées was even flat bread. My lamb was fairly overcooked (and 2 cutlets! I suggest 3 for a main particularly given the prices). My wife's beef slightly under but ok. The accompaniments to each of our mains were good and food was well presented. Don't serve meat with butter knives! This is just silly. Make sure to fill guests water glasses. My wife went up to fill them after 15+ mins of them being empty (there were only 3 tables so no excuse here). The best part of the meal was the fried chicken entre which arguably shouldn't even be on the menu of a restaurant attempting fine dining. No complaints as it was the highlight but might be worth reviewing the entire menu for consistency. Desert was a lemon meringue pie which was from the fridge, pastry was soggy. The main issue though is the meringue was underdone. It didn't have enough sugar and wasn't whipped sufficiently so was just a loose lightly torched egg white on top. Serve bread rolls/bread + oil/anything to kick off the meal.

Plenty of the above can be fixed easily and I really hope for a better experience if I...

I was fortunate enough to visit Hollick in January and experience the Immersion Package for 2 which I had won. We started our day having a personal tour of Hollick with the ever so lovely winemaker Jordan who had a captivating passion for wine. He kindly guided us through a wine flight, explaining the makings of each wine in intricate detail. To finish off what was already such an enjoyable day we were treated to a degustation with paired wines with the chef visiting our table to personalise our meal. All of the food was perfectly presented and full of wonderful flavours, most of all their crème brûlée which is reason enough to make a visit Hollick. We will be sure to dine again and order the crème brûlée with a glass of The Nectar 2022 when we are next in...

I don't really know what to say except for amazing. The food is to die for. Ben and the rest of the team are truly fantastic. The venue perfect. And the wine,OMG,WOW,AMAZING. My wife and I were just recently married and we had our reception at the Hollick Winery. Ben and the team were so amazing. We did not have to worry about a single thing. The team made you feel like family. Ben and the Hollick team, we cannot thank you enough for making our special day so amazing. Thank you team. You are amazing. Forever...