Dark Horse equestrian-inspired vineyard for sale in the Hunter Valley
Dark Horse an equestrian-inspired vineyard, with a luxe cellar door along with a well regarded wine brand, has been listed for sale at Lovedale.
The 25 acre Hunter Valley wine country offering is an award-winning boutique vineyard with around 7.5 acres under vine with Semillon and Chardonnay, which were first planted in the 1960's.
The wines are small batch and hand-picked.
An American-style barn - the Dark Horse cellar door - comes set behind the estate's Wilderness Road sandstone gates amid post and rail fencing.
Vendors Martin and Olivia Pukanic combined their love for wine and horses since their 2014 purchase.
James Halliday had included the property in 2011 as one of his top ten "darkhorse wineries" under its previous name Noonji Estate when owned by Drew Gibson.
The couple had plans for barnstyle accomodation with private pools. The low-yielding and high quality grapes that produce arounds 1300 bottles a year is being sold on a walk in walk out basis by Cain Beckett at Jurds. The price guidance is $1.5 million to $1.6 million.
There are tax advantages to owning a winery with recent changes likely to give smaller local operators a competitive boost against larger wine producers.
Last year the total vineyard area in Australia was tallied at over 135,000 hectares. Shiraz totalled 30 percent, while Chardonnay was the largest white with 16 percent.
The total winegrape crush was 1.8 million tonnes, of which South Australian regions accounted just over 50 percent.
