Sweetwater, the world class Hunter Valley vineyard estate has $30 million plus hopes

Sweetwater, a world class winery located in the rolling hills of the Hunter Valley, has been listed for sale.

The 48 hectare Pokolbin property is being marketed by Jurds Real Estate as the most significant country vineyard estate in Australia.

Inspired by southern European vineyard estates, in it is a planned hamlet with a series of interlocking properties of differing eras.

Producing Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz on 16 hectares, there is also a cellar door.

There is private owners and guest wing accommodations, entertaining loggia and plunge pool. There is also an olive grove.

Sweetwater Wines, part of the Hardie Holdings group, purchased the land in 1997 in Belford from Belford Pastoral Company, which was originally granted to the pioneering Richard Jones, a merchant and pastoralist.

In 1829 Jones had received 10,000 acres at Singleton in the Hunter Valley from where he established one of his finest vineyards in the Patrick Plains Shore at Sweetwater Creek off Old North Road. 

In 1844 from Jones’s first plantings, his vineyard produced a total of 2,000 gallons of wine. 

When Sweetwater Wines purchased the property, there was clear evidence of several vineyards, which at that stage consisted of rows of mainly dead, but in some cases struggling vines with huge old knarled bases and the odd spindly vine struggling to survive. These were being grazed by cattle, and on advice from our viticulturist, dozed and burnt, as a precaution against plant disease.

Sweetwater Wines had Brian McGuigan give early advice on the layout and planting, having worked on the vineyard when he was about 18 years old.

Alan Jurd at Jurds Real Estate has Sweetwater for sale with $30 million plus expectations. "The enquiry levels of 2007 have started to return given the current exchange rate," he said.

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