Hannah McCormick

For South Australian-born Hannah McCormick, a career spent at some of the world’s most storied hotels ultimately clarified what luxury means to her. At The Savoy in London, she learned precision and an appreciation for history; at Fairmont Banff Springs in Canada, she saw what it meant for a property to belong as much to its landscape as to its owners. “Somewhere in between, I realized the experiences I remembered most were the ones with a strong sense of place,” she says. The Barossa offered exactly that. Hannah joined The Louise as Assistant General Manager in 2022, bringing her global experience home to a region she had long loved and where she quickly discovered meaningful relationships are built slowly, personally and often around a table.

Those relationships are now central to how Hannah introduces guests to the Barossa. She spent her early years at The Louise visiting growers, makers and neighbours, listening and earning trust “in increments,” while becoming part of the wider community herself. The result is what she calls a “backstage pass” to the region: a tasting among the barrels with a winemaker, a conversation with a fifth-generation grower, or time spent with an artist in their own space. Now as General Manager of the intimate 15-suite lodge, Hannah can shape those experiences around the person in front of her. “The communication becomes a genuine conversation rather than a transaction,” she says. Ultimately, she wants guests to feel they have encountered the Barossa in much the same way she has, through its people. The greatest compliment is when they return remembering those connections and leave feeling, as Hannah puts it, “like they were let into the Barossa, rather than shown around it.”