Wandin Valley Estate is situated in the Lovedale area of the lower Hunter Valley on the slopes of the Molly Morgan Mountains with views over Pokolbin towards the Brokenback range. The vineyard was established in the early 1970's and the mature Shiraz and Chardonnay vines are over 30 years old. It is from these vines that our Reserve Chardonnay and Bridie's Shiraz are produced.

Originally called Millstone Vineyard, the property was bought by James and Philippa Davern in 1990 and since then there has been a continual programme of development with the building of a new state-of-the-art winery and new plantings of Shiraz, Chardonnay, Merlot and Malbec.

The philosophy behind the development of the Estate has always been to produce wines of premium quality, and to establish a unique tourist destination for visitors. The Estate has accommodation for guests in self-contained Italian style villas, a café, Cellar door and art gallery, swimming pool, tennis court and a country cricket ground with a gracious Pavilion.

James Davern was a film and television producer for 30 years. He worked initially for the Australian Broadcasting Commission producing drama and music programmes and in 1979 he established his own independent production company called JNP FILMS which was responsible for a long-running series "A Country Practice" as well as many other film and television programmes. He and Philippa bought the vineyard in 1990 and renamed it for sentimental reasons after the fictional town from the series "A Country Practice".

Since 1990, Wandin Valley wines have always received excellent critical acclaim, and have won many show medals. Apart from the Chardonnay and Shiraz which is produced from the old vines on our estate, we are now sourcing top quality fruit from other old Hunter vineyards to make Verdelho and Semillon. Fruit for the Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon is from the Wrattonbully area near Coonawarra in South Australia.

Winemaker Matt Burton is producing the present vintages with Vineyard Manager Scot Ling. Our 2006 Rosé won Top Gold and a Trophy at the Australian Boutique Wine Awards. This victory continued a tradition set in 2002 when that vintage’s Rosé was judged the best of its class at the same show.  Our 2005 Reserve Chardonnay also picked up a Top Gold and Trophy this year at The Brisbane Wine Festival. To see more of our awards, and press reviews please visit our “News and Press” page.

As well as selling our wine to the domestic market here in Australia, we now export to Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, Denmark and the US.