Iconic winemaker Leo and Nay Buring's 1920s Leonay house listed after restoration
Historic Buring House, built in the early 1920s by iconic winemaker Leo Buring and wife Nay, has been listed for sale.
The landmark three-bedroom house in the Sydney suburb of Leonay on 2,203 square metres has been meticulously restored to maintain its original character.
There's three-metre ceilings, open fireplaces and solid hardwood polished timber floors at the Leonay Parade house with 1,296 bottle cellar.
It's been listed through David Reeves and Andrew Reeves at Jim Aitken and Partners Emu Plains for September 8 auction, who expect around $1 million.
The restoration was undertaken in 2010 by Integrated Design Associates.
The couple described their home as "so 'beautiful here with the Nepean River in front and the mountains at our back door, with an abundance of emus and wallabies". The Burings actually maintained a zoo at the then 160-hectare property supplying Australian animals to zoos around the world.
Around 1936 the Burings built a 19-hole golf course on their property.
Dignitries to have dropped by the house included Sir Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh in 1948. The property was sold after Buring's 1961 death, along with other holdings including Chateau Leonay at Tanunda in the Barossa Valley.
Source: Penrith City Council
Leonay is bordered by the Nepean River on one side and a nature reserve on the other.
It was named after the winemaker and his wife.
He was born in 1876 in Adelaide but studied at Geisenheim Viticulture College in Rhine, Germany, and in 1898 attended the Viticultural College at Montpellier in France. It was in 1902 when he married Ida (Nay) Sobels from another great vigneron family.
They secured the Edinglassie Estate (376 acres) for £2,200 in 1916. The bulk of the property was sold to off for residential development after his death.
