ABOUT MOUNT OPHIR ESTATE

Mount Ophir Estate is steeped in wine history, beginning in 1891 when friends Adam Eisemann and Morty Gleeson began works on a farm and vineyard. Prominent London wine merchants, the Burgoyne family purchased the site two years later and grew it into a significant exporter of fortified wines to Britain. By 1903 they had become the largest state-of-the-art wine producing facility in Australia, growing 280 hectares of Shiraz, Durif, and Muscat and building several (now-heritage-listed) structures, including the striking French provincial tower, a nod to their heritage. Tax changes contributed to the Burgoynes selling in 1955 to a sheep farmer, who removed the vines for grazing and carved off much of the land. A bed and breakfast operator then bought the 50 hectares that remained, planting a small parcel of Shiraz vines in the mid-1990s, and tending to the land along sustainable permaculture principles.