Description
About Allandale Wines
Established in 1978, Allandale Winery boasts an acclaimed portfolio of distinguished boutique wines with a vast range to suit all tastes. Allandale wines are made from our own and carefully selected vineyards in the Hunter Valley, Mudgee, Orange, Hilltops & Goulburn Valley. All of the wines are made on-site using state-of-the-art winemaking equipment. The wines are of the highest quality and consistency, and are renowned for their distinctive varietal characters and superb balance of flavours.
The site of Allandale Winery is close to what was one of the largest wineries in the Hunter Valley in the 1890s, also called Allandale. The 1890’s Allandale winery had a capacity of 518,000 gallons (2.35 million litres) and included some fine stocks of claret and hock. In 1891 Allandale was awarded the champion medal for NSW, and by that time had received over 70 awards in exhibitions around the world. It was technologically advanced for the time; it boasted a machine used for the purpose of immediately separating the stalks from the fruit before finding its way into the presses; a steam engine was used for driving the crusher and cleaning casks and centrifugal pumps were used for racking the wine. Historical records are scarce on who owned and operated the old Allandale Winery and why it ceased operation in the late 1920s. The Great Depression that started about 1929 was a likely contribution to it finishing.
With the growth of the wine industry and tourism in the Hunter Valley in the 1970s, a group of friends including long term owners Wally and Judith Atallah and Allandale’s first winemaker Ed Jouault, purchased 30 acres of land in the Lower Hunter Valley wine growing area in what was then known as Allandale, now Lovedale. By 1978 the winery/cellar door was built on the hill which overlooks 17 acres of plantings of Semillon, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and captures the panoramic views over the Lower Hunter and Brokenback Mountain Range.
