Review Ransom Wines - Warkworth

Beautiful spot, excellent service from very friendly staff. Ordered the platter and were so impressed by the quality and range of food presented. Enjoyed a bottle of wine selected during our tasting. Very much recommend stopping here for lunch.

Albariño wine was amazing, nice and light but with good flavour. We ordered the famous platter which was huge. Nice cheese, prosciutto and some yummy non-boring salads.

Mate at Ransom Wines provides good range for tasting. I simply can't resist to buy one. For this unusual warm autumn this year, white wine was my choice. Simply sensational! Walk around vineyard was a fantastic and relaxing experience. Cheers mate!

We were on the way home from holiday and decided to make a detour to visit a winery. My brothers had been to Ransoms' establishment several years ago and thoroughly enjoyed both the wine and the craic. We tried all the wines and enjoyed every single one of them, particularly the Pinot Gris, the vin doux naturels, the various reds and the chardonnay - as said pretty much all of them. There was also an intriguing range of olive oils, and last, but by no means least, some limoncello made by Ransoms themselves. This brought back memories of shared experiences in Tuscany, a bracing digestif after superb local cuisine. So thank you to Marion (I presume it was Marion we were speaking to) for a thoroughly enjoyable experience, both the wines and the craic. I think the family you were thinking of might have been Antinori by the way! Cheers H PS We will be back - we did not have time to sample the lunchtime platters, which sounded delicious and if the aroma coming from the kitchen was anything to judge by, worth having.

Excellent service. Tasting of 5 wines is 15NZD. They were ok. The Pinot Gris is very sweet. It's cheaper to purchase wine and take it home then it is to purchase the wine and drink it there. Kind of strange.

Closed for Good!! This place was fantastic but, sadly, after the founders retired and sold it, the new owner has now sold it to a land developer. The depressing price of "progress"

Wonderful views and good food. We ordered the big platter and it came with a nice selection of things.

We enjoyed a lunch with a great Cheeseplatter, excellent Bruschettas and a delicate Courchette soup in a peaceful ambience

Great wine, beautiful scenery, knowledgable staff and a free tasting with the purchase of a bottle of wine!

Great platter for lunch - good service

Great service and even better wines.

Best unexpected trip to a vineyard! Maybe it was because it was a stunning summers day, but what a setting! Welcoming team, well delivered and knowledgeable on the wine tastings, (I might be greedy but pours could be a little bigger), OUTSTANDING platters (a must have) and yum wines. Loved that they grow the grapes and make all wine onsite.

I bought a grabone lunch voucher for this restaurant, and I went with my mum. The food included in the voucher was a platter, which had your normal bread, dips,salami meats, veges and cheese... It was very nicely presented with a wide range of selections. The only downside for me was that they only gave us 2 pieces of cheese, which was just not enough... For wine, we had a bottle of 2011 carmenere red wine, and it was quite nice. The services were good, and beautiful environment. I would definitely return and recommend to my friends.

A very enjoyable return visit for us to Ransom. We love their platters with the freshest of ingredients, great variety, fantastic flavours and presentation. Absolutely perfect for sharing as a couple or a group. The atmosphere is casual and relaxed with a pleasant outlook over the vines, away from the noise and distraction of the main highway. One of our favourite vineyards to visit.

Well what a wonderful sunny afternoon we all (41 of us!) enjoyed at Ransom's Vineyard. Our event a surprise 70th birthday party luncheon. Having earlier chosen Ransom's because we had received really positive advice about the ambience, food platters and the way in which groups were catered for - we wanted a welcoming, informal yet tasteful environment that allowed people to mix and mingle whilst at the same time enjoying a tasty selection of food that didn't break our budget! Well we and our guests were not disappointed, our guests commented how the large food platters placed on each table were just right for such an occasion. Marion and staff had adapted their $20 platters to suit our occasion - a tasty and novel selection of finger type food, though as the hosts we didn't get too much chance to eat much ourselves as we were too busy chatting and introducing guests - so can't give you specifics here - reports from friends were very favourable however. The wine selection worked well and many seemed especially to enjoy the pinot gris - as evidenced by the amount consumed!! Marion and Robin were welcoming to us and our guests and dealt with ongoing requests tactfully and efficiently. We felt at home in this environment and the ambience combined with the simply beautiful sunny day (the best so far this year) all helped make a special day!

I also was in the group dinner referred too.Ransom Winery has a lovely setting and an interesting building. I would agree with Grant in that the staff, except for the young waiter, came across as unhappy. Food wise;$47pp included dips/bread and a main.The dips and bread served were great and it was really good that the bread was topped up, this was really good-thank you.Wines were also good(thanks to our birthday girl). Main was approximately at a $35-37 price range. We would have estimated that the bread and dips shared between six (2 sets per table) were around $7 pp leaving $3 for coffee(plunger) at the end of the meal.Total $47pp. Both the salmon and beef were well cooked but were served in varied sizes. One person had three bits of beef, whilst another had two smaller ones. One persons salmon was large,whilst another's was literally five small mouthfuls. One salmon was sent back, due to small size,with no argument-thank you.Salads were nice,but I agree the roast veges were over cooked. We were very surprised that we were asked to pour our own coffees with a;"you don't mind do you?".For the price paid it would have been nice to have full service.<br/>Overall I think we felt that it wasn't good value for $47 pp compared to other restaurants and wineries frequented, but our main concern was service without a smile, we felt quite unwelcome, which was sad as I was really looking forward to coming as we have just moved into the area.<br/> I'm sure your platters at $20pp are good value but it's also good to match your lovely wines and food with consistency and good service-with an appreciation that people have come to your establishment.

Had a family gathering there today with about 24 people. We will not be returning. We were not made to feel welcome, the service was poor, the meals were expensive and meagre - $49 per head for lunch - and this didn't include any drinks, just nibbles and an extremely small main. The beef dish (which was well cooked) consisted of two very small medallions less than 1cm thick and a shared platter of roast vegetables that were dry and insufficient to feed the 12 people at our table. The same applied for the salad which seemed to just consist of lettuce leaves.<br/><br/>Our host (the birthday girl) generously provided wine for the table which we found out later was $50 per bottle and this was the cheapest they offered for a dine-in experience. Interestingly nobody in our party purchased any more wine at lunch as it was just so overpriced.<br/><br/>They did pretty well out of us today: $49 x 24 people + $300 in wine = $1476. Definitely would not return there and would not recommend it to anybody.<br/><br/>On the way home we called into Burger King to satisfy our hunger.<br/><br/>To end this review on a positive note I would like to recommend 'The Feast' at said burger joint. Delicious and very filling.

Visited Ransom Wines June 2013, booked, and had lovely platters of food, the wines were OK, reds definitely preferable -however the service left a bit to be desired, slow for the wine tastings, and no additional bottles offered at table service (which was happening at other tables I noted) - but disappointing as we were there to spend up and make a day of it. The outdoor/room was very cold and the heaters were not put on until the very last minute, in fact being asked to "get off my seat" by the owner, so he could climb on it to turn the heater on, I thought was terrible service (and shocked everyone at our table). To me, Ransom you didn't deliver quite the special time we had envisaged - like many other wineries are known for around our District. Bit of a shame.

Went with my husband and daughter for lunch and found the food was as good as described by associates. The platter looked fantastic and tasted as good with all items prepared on site. The wine was great and with the gorgeous surroundings made for a memorable lunch. Will be back.

We decided to head north for lunch today as it was a beautiful sunny day. When we arrived at Ransom the Wine Bar was near capacity, however the lovely owners found us a table outside overlooking the vineyard and surrounds - magic! The service was fabulous as was the food and wine. A must do!

Our small group had a very pleasant afternoon at this beautiful spot, sharing a stunning, long platter (they are made from old wine barrels and available to purchase) loaded with tasty, fresh morsels, with a bottle of their lovely Vin Gris rose. Some of us tried other wines by the glass - the carmenere (a rare red), pinot gris and sweet pinot gris were all very good, perfect with the dessert we'd brought with us (I don't think they have desserts hence guests are welcome to bring their own). It's always nice to be greeted and served by the owners which was the case here. They explained their menu concept and told us about the dips and delicious olive oil, grown by a cooperative using their own olives. Bread baskets were refilled without us asking. We were surprised they didn't talk about the wines before taking our order - maybe they do that with the tastings - but the descriptions on the wine menu are very extensive anyway. I have been to a couple of other wineries in the region before, and after driving past Ransom Wines many times over the years, I'm pleased to say I've finally visited and found it up there with the best.

We went out to Ransom not quite knowing what to expect (other reviews). Very pleasant surprise. Tastings offered were very generous. We had a platter for two. Nothing out of a bottle or can--and good bread and plenty of it and the wine was very good. Wife described it as the perfect lunch.<br/><br/>Very nice location -would be a great place to bring a visitor without needing to spend a lot of $$.<br/><br/>We will return.

We also had a not so nice experience at Ransom. Were greeted in quite a rude and abrupt way and felt like we were intruding. Waited a long time for our food, finished our wine before food came, never asked if we wanted anything else to drink. Food was great and setting was also lovely but the whole vineyard experience was very disappointing.

Agree with first review - amazing food and fantastic wine. Unfortunately the rudeness of one or two staff members (possibly the owner) spoiled the atmosphere. I thought the first time round they were having a bad day; second time round I realised it was an attitude problem. It felt as though we were just in the way, rather than paying customers. However the wait staff were generally lovely. If the attitude of the abovementioned staff changed then this would be a place to rave about. Unfortunately I won't be recommending dining here to any one :(

Place is beautiful! Platters were stunning and tasted fantastic. Most of the staff were lovely. One of the staff or possibly the owner wasn't the most pleasant to deal with. Shame because the place was so nice.