WA's biggest vineyard has hit the market as part of an aggregation of premium South West wineries, viticultural and agricultural land being offered by Ray White Rural WA.
Russell Road has 226 hectares under vines and 14 varieties, making it the biggest single vineyard in the State.
It is being offered alongside Hay Shed Hill, which has 18ha under vine in Wilyabrup and includes the renowned Rustico restaurant, the Jindawarra vineyard with 42ha under vine and Sirens vineyard with 44ha under vine and five varieties.
West Cape Howe is part of the Ray White Rural WA winery package and has 104ha under vine with nine varieties and capacity to process 5000 tonnes of wine.
It is made up of the Langton, Hayview seven-variety vineyard and Landsdale vineyard that has 91ha under vine.
The historic Blackwattle property, further south at Frankland River, completes the selection.
Ray White Rural WA director Steve Vaughan said this was an opportunity to acquire a significant volume of quality vineyards and mixed farming land.
He said the aim was to sell it as a whole package, but offers were also being sought for individual parcels until early 2024.
Russell Road vineyard
WA's biggest vineyard is in the premium wine region of Frankland River, in the Great Southern.
There are 226.5ha planted to vines and another 62.5ha to develop with viticultural or agricultural pursuits.
Soils are classic Frankland River gravelly loams that are ideal for wine grapes and there is plentiful water with 490 megalitre storage and a big roaded catchment water harvesting system.
This property comes with a machinery shed, 30-room workers' accommodation and a good road network.
It has a three-bedroom, one-bathroom fibro house and there is a vermin fence around the property.
It forms part of the Trentvale vineyards aggregation.
Trentvale vineyards
This package of quality vineyards was formed in 2012 following strategic acquisitions with a focus on premium and super premium grapes from WA's premier wine growing regions of Margaret River and the Great Southern.
All of the Trentvale vineyard properties have long-standing environmental and sustainability accreditation.
A total of 460ha of vines are in production and the vineyards - Jindawarra, Sirens, Landsdale, Hayview and Russell Road - consistently produce more than 3500 tonnes of grapes.
Land area is more than 1100ha and all sites have well maintained infrastructure and water supplies.
There is consistent management across all sites to the highest industry standards, which can be ongoing if new owners desire this.
Grapes planted are modern, in-demand varieties and classic varieties.
This enables production to move with trends.
This aggregation has grape contracts with more than 20 of WA's leading wine brands and bulk wine supply agreements for more than 700 kilolitres annually.
It has a Wine Australia export licence, consistent earnings and strong earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation performance.
The Trentvale vineyard properties come with the West Cape Howe cellar door facility, a 420 square metre machinery shed, office and storage area and 90m2 accommodation quarters.
A pump shed has fully-functioning, well-maintained pumps and filters and the vermin proof fencing and plain wire fencing are well maintained.
Trellis, irrigation and vine health have been well maintained and grapes achieve consistent yields.
Hay Shed Hill Wines
About half of this 40ha property in the renowned wine-pioneering area of Wilyabrup, near Margaret River, is planted to mature vines that produce super-premium wine grapes.
The remaining 6.7ha of arable land has untapped potential for further vineyard development or an alternative use, such as accommodation or hospitality.
Hay Shed Hill produces the well-known brands Hay Shed Hill and Pitchfork, which often feature in the James Halliday Wine Companion's top 10 selections for value for money.
The Hay Shed Hill vineyard is on a picturesque property originally established as a dairy farm as part of the group settlement scheme for returned soldiers from World War I.
Vines were first planted in 1973 under the guidance of Kevin Cullen, when the property was known as Sussex Vale.
In the late 1980s the vineyard was bought by the Morrison family.
As the old hay shed from the dairy days was a local landmark, the Morrisons used it to create the new name for the property.
The Hay Shed Hill wines are made by the current winemaker at a contract winemaking facility off-site.
The Hay Shed Hill vineyard is planted to the classic varieties that have built the reputation of Margaret River as a world-class grape growing and winemaking region.
The Hay Shed Hill vineyard is managed under contract by the leading WA viticultural management group QVS.
This arrangement brings the skills and knowledge of the QVS viticulture team.
The service includes all vineyard operations, including harvesting and provision of the required equipment and vineyard staffing.
Hay Shed Hill has capacity for domestic and export distribution and has been making sales of more than 34,000 dozen-bottle cartons per annum.
The Hay Shed Hill property comes with a beautifully restored four bedroom farm house.
It has a busy cellar/reception venue with impressive sales records.
Included in its sale is the outstanding fully leased and managed restaurant Rustico, at Hay Shed Hill, which has been rated number one in region Trip Advisor.
There is a fully insulated, 300m2 warehouse and vineyard machinery buildings.
Water is secure via two dams and a self-replenishing soak with associated pump stations.
A highly experienced management team is onsite.
Wilyabrup has the highest concentration of premium wine producers in WA and is home to many of the original vineyards planted in the State, including Vasse Felix, Moss Wood and Cullen.
The Wilyabrup valley is a series of gentle slopes found alongside tributaries to the Willyabrup Brook.
Varying topography in the area provides distinct vineyard sites.
Vines prosper on the Wilyabrup soils and the gravel subsoil ensures good drainage, while the high clay content enables good water retention throughout summer.
Blackwattle
The Blackwattle property offers a range of characteristics that the mixed farming market across Australia is demanding.
These include an excellent Mediterranean cool climate in a 600 millimetre annual average rainfall zone, with well drained, gravelly loam soils suited to cropping, sheep, cattle or viticulture.
Blackwattle was part of the land that was openly grazed by early pioneer shepherds in WA and later was taken up by settlers to this region.
The Frankland River race course, which is on the Blackwattle property, was developed and became a social gathering place for the locals in the region.
The race course was declared a reserve within Blackwattle.
The owners acquired Blackwattle in 2013 and since then have added three other adjoining or nearby properties to bring it up to its current size of 5066 hectares.
Blackwattle adjoins the Frankland River townsite, which has a primary school, general store and post office, a country club and district hall and community centre.
About 3723ha are being used for cropping and grazing.
The grazing is carried out with a conservative 7000-head ewe flock and followers.
Blackwattle is also very suitable for running cattle if there were some changes to fencing and additional yards.
Management has been cropping about 2000ha per annum - about half to canola and half to cereals.
There is 1930ha being harvested in 2023.
The property is in a temperate rainfall climate and is well-suited to viticulture activities.
The average rainfall registered at Frankland Vineyards weather station was 602.4mm in the period from 1976 to 2021.
Fencing across the property is in good to excellent condition, with Ringlock and plain wires affixed to pine posts and steel droppers.
Extensive work has been carried out on the water supply and catchment during the past 10 years to supply a vineyard nearby and provide stock water availability.
The system is secured by three key dams- with further paddock dams for stock - and linked to the vineyard with an underground pipe serviced by pumps.
The main brick and Colorbond homestead was built in about 1997 and has five bedrooms and a two-car garage.
There is also a three bedroom brick and tile home, farm sheds, chemical and storage shed, fertiliser shed and two shearing sheds.
Four well positioned sheep yards service the property from north to south.
More information: Contact Steve Vaughan on 0428 120 407.
