Luckett Vineyards — Attraction in Wallbrook

Great! But, beware of unpleasant 'surprises' in your food.

Tucked away in a little unassuming area of Nova Scotia, this little vineyard has a certain Mediterranean charm that makes you feel like you’re miles away from Canada. The store - which is the first section of a multipart winery and restaurant - is beautifully decorated with light blond shelves displaying wines and a variety of accoutrements including cheeses, cured meats, serve ware and olives. Opposite of the shelves is a large wine tasting area where you can sample 3 wines for $5 or 5 wines for $10. We tried the 5 and enjoyed the Rieslings, Fizz and Rosetta. In addition to producing wines, Luckett’s also produces their own olive oil and when we went, blueberries from their fields.

As for the vineyard itself, guests are allowed to tour the grounds at their own leisure. Having been to many vineyards on the west coast, we spent very little time doing this but provided a nice walk on a beautiful day. For those interested, there is the ubiquitous red phone booth for which the vineyard uses as a mascot located on the grounds for fun photos.

The most enticing reason and why we (and hundreds of others who were also there on the same day) chose to visit the vineyard though, is the on-site restaurant. Situated on the patio directly outside of the winery/store, the bistro overlooks the vineyard with the Bay of Fundy in the distance and is decorated with olive trees and beautiful flowers. We were lucky and managed to get a table within 15 minutes of putting our names down, but noticed at least 20 others in line behind us. The Bistro was very busy with all staff going at high gear including the owner who was running around seating people and clearing tables. It was a little windy that day, but the restaurant had a large supply of blankets for everyone. Having already had lunch but not being able to resist how good everything looked, we ordered the mussels and the charcuterie platter. The mussels were hands down the best mussels we had in all of Nova Scotia (I tried 7 other restaurants). They were perfectly cooked, fresh and seasoned impeccably. But, the star of the show was definitely the charcuterie platter. It was put together SO beautifully and packed full of veggies, olives, bread, meats and other accompaniments. I would say this is the best charcuterie platter I’ve ever seen…

Until we found a big hairy black fly (quite dead) marinated in with the peppers.

Maybe because the platter was so beautiful that the sight of the fly was especially repugnant, but we lost our appetite for the platter right after. Upon notifying our server, he was open to getting us a new platter but we were a little put off to want a second one. I’m not sure if this is a common occurrence here, but the server excuse what happened with the fact that we were in an outdoor setting and this was a risk for being in nature. Thinking back, I this would have been a reasonable justification if the fly had flown into our food, but it was already dead and folded into the roasted peppers, indicating this happened within the kitchen (not outdoors).

All in all, based on the setting and food (great mussels and from what we did get to eat from the platter - about 15%), I would recommend checking this place out. I would however, check the food very carefully unless you’re okay with more exotic...

We had an absolutely horrible time. As we arrived minutes to noon on a Saturday to celebrate my in-laws anniversary, there was already a lineup. Since they open at 11:00 we weren't expecting a lineup but it wasn't huge so not a big deal or so we thought. We waited close to 2hrs (1hr 50min to be exact) for a table of 8 which included 2 children. If that wasn't bad enough, we then waited OVER 2hrs for our main meal! Busy is one thing but this was absolutely atrocious and inexcusable. Yes, we should have left but we were continually assured "oh another 15 minutes" or "another 10 minutes" or the best one yet, "a table is being cleared for you right now" then we waited an additional 40 minutes since then! *Tables taking forever to be cleared and new guests seated *People visibly getting frustrated waiting to pay in order to leave *Empty back tables in the tent area unused while numerous people waited Don't get me started on the price for what you get. For a vineyard and a fancy establishment, this too was very disappointing. I ordered a caesar salad and to my surprise, apparently it is made with a Caesar vinaigrette. I'm not exaggerating when I say the lettuce was literally dripping with oil. It could not be eaten. In the end, the server did not charge for my meal. She was in total agreement that the dressing was too oily. none of us are overly excited to return and if we did, it would definitely not to be on a Saturday in the summer! I could think of numerous other places we could have gone that have exceptional service, great food, wonderful atmosphere and good prices. At Luckett's, you pay for the wine and the view, but, if you're not a drinker and you travel around Nova Scotia to get the view... You're really not...

We have been to Luckett’s many times and have loved it. This time I think possibly it was understaffed or disorganized. We arrived at about 130 on a Monday afternoon to a line which was expected. However the hostess was cleaning tables and seating people. But no one told us it would be a 40+ minute wait. Not once did she come through the line to take our name and say how long the wait was. We also wanted to do a tasting but didn’t want to leave our place for lunch. If they took a name and number etc we could have shopped and did some Tastings while we waited. We watched many open tables sit open during our whole wait. We actually watched one table be cleaned twice and sit open the whole time. This was ultimately the table we ended up seated at. No once did anyone apologized about the wait or say the were understaffed. It just seemed that the hostess was lost and doing too much. She would clean tables while there was many tables open and cleaned. Seating multiple 4 person Tables while many 2 person tables were open at the time. My review was still given as 4 stars as we really enjoyed the food and service the many times we were there before. There was obviously a disconnect this time around. In the end we didn’t bother doing a tasting or shopping as we already spend almost 2 hours...