Margan Family Winegrowers

A minimalist approach allows each wine variety to speak for itself...

Margan WHITE Wines

"I am aiming for freshness, lifted fragrance, intensity and great structure in my Margan white wines. I have chosen to use a screwcap closure to ensure this." Andrew Margan, Winemaker,

SEMILLON
The Margan Semillon allows for a touch more ripeness than most Hunter Semillons and whilst this ensures the wine can be enjoyed as a young wine, the great structure ensures its longevity. It is characterised by an intense citrus and lemongrass nose and a generous middle palate with a long, crisp finish.
Vintages: 2009 -2008 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000
Margan Semillon Awards

VERDELHO
Picked in three distinct lots, our Margan Verhelho features a lifted, perfumed, tropical fruit nose with a rich palate, crisp clean finish with a touch of spiciness. Margan Verdelho was honoured as the third best Australian Verdelho at the AGT Wine Magazines Top 20 Verdelhos.
Vintages: 2009 -2008 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000
Margan Verdelho Awards Margan Verdelho Reviews

CHARDONNAY
Growing at less than one tonne to the acre, our Chardonnay provides us with excellent ripeness and complexity. Fermented in a mixture of brand new and one year old French oak barriques, the wine is characterized by rich, powerful fruit integration.
Vintages: 2009 -2008 -2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000
Margan Chardonnay Awards

Margan dessert Wine

"Margan Botrytis Semillon is one of the few made from straight Hunter Valley Semillon and it is consistently one of the best in the country. Five Stars!" Ralph Kyte-Powell, The Age

BOTRYTIS SEMILLON
From the same old vines that we produce our dry Semillon we also produce a Botrytis Semillon dessert style wine. This wine has won its share of awards, including the trophy for best sweet white wine at the 2004 Decanter World Wine Awards. This wine is beautifully balanced and unique in its structure.
Vintages: 2009 - 2008 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000
Margan Botrytis Semillon Awards

Margan Rose Wine

SHIRAZ SAIGNEE
We also produce a rosé style wine – Margan Shiraz Saignee.Old vine Hunter Valley shiraz turned into a dry rose style using the saignee method.
Vintages: 2009 -2008 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001
Margan Shiraz Saignee Awards

Margan Red Wines

"I seek ripe fruit flavours and softness. Minimal use of oak ensure that our red wines concentrate on varietal flavours and structure. Our red wines are great food wines and are characterised by concentrated ripe fruit, subtle oak integration, balance and structure." Andrew Margan, Winemaker

MERLOT
Margan Merlot is a rich, fruit driven style with soft, silky tannins. It has been selected by AGT Wine Magazine as being among Australia’s top twenty merlots.
Vintages: 2007 -2006 -2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000
Margan Merlot Awards

BARBERA
Our Barbera was the first planted in the Hunter Valley and originates from Italian root stock. The wine shows lifted aromas of herbs, berries and earth and a great combination of Italian varietal definition with Hunter terroir influences.
Vintages: 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002
Margan Barbera Awards

SHIRAZ
Shiraz from the Hunter Valley is recognized as one of the great wine styles of the world. Our Margan Shiraz is distinguished by a rich, ripe palate of berries and spice, unique tannin structure and earthy complexity.
Vintages: 2007 -2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000
Margan Shiraz Awards

CABERNET SAUVIGNON
We crop our Cabernet at super low levels to achieve full ripeness. The wine has a rich, vibrant palate of cassis, blueberries and chocolate and dusty tannins providing savoury structure.
Vintages: 2008 -2007 - 2006 -2005 - 2004 - 2003 - 2002 - 2001 - 2000
Margan Cabernet Sauvignon Awards

Margan White Label LIMITED RELEASE Wines

The wines for the Margan White Label Range are all made from our single vineyards grown on the red basalt soil of the Fordwich Sill. In outstanding vintages, we are able to reserve small batches of wines that are unique in style from our current release Margan Family Range. These outstanding wines tend to select themselves for separate release under the ‘White Label’ Range. Depending on the quality of the vintage we may have anywhere between four and zero of these wines for release.

“They are chosen from our most distinctive batches, out of our best vintages, handcrafted in limited volumes and released to only a few...” Andrew Margan, Winemaker

WHITE LABEL SEMILLON
This traditionally styled Hunter semillon is made from 70 year old dryland vines from our Belford vineyard. Enjoy now as an aperitif, or cellar for a decade or more. It has pure fruit characters on the nose, a lean middle palate and a long, crisp finish.
Vintages: 2008 -2007 -2006 - 2005
White Label Semillon Awards

WHITE LABEL CHARDONNAY
Ripe full bodied fruit is the norm from the Hunter and it takes a lot of winemaking to turn this full bodied wine into a more complex balanced and textured wine of interest. This wine was picked at lower sugar to keep its leaner structure and citrus overtones and fermented in separate components using solids, natural yeasts, barrel fermentation and higher ferment temperatures at various levels to create further complexity.

Vintages: 2009
White Label Chardonnay Awards

WHITE LABEL BARBERA
We were the first in the Hunter to plant Barbera and our vines are now a decade old. Our Barbera is a proven over-achiever year in, year out, and as such makes its debut in the White Label range. It is rich, savoury, long and textured. This wine is a personal favourite. Salute!
Vintages: 2008 -2007
White Label Barbera Awards

WHITE LABEL SHIRAZ MOURVEDRE
This is only the second release of this wine and it is one of the first to sell out. The sleek dusty characters of the mourvedre are a great complement to the spicy fruit of the shiraz. This will mature beautifully, but is a bloody good drink right now!
Vintages: 2008 -2007 - 2005
White Label Shiraz Mourvedre Awards

WHITE LABEL SHIRAZ
This is our flagship red wine and the 2007 is a cracker! It is all fruit with just a touch of new French oak subtely integrated. A complex of black fruits, spice and tar, with a big tannin finish - just made for long term cellaring. Only 150 dozen to be released and that won't go far!
Vintages: 2007 -2006 - 2005
White Label Shiraz Awards

WHITE LABEL CABERNET SAUVIGNON
With 15 acres of 40 year old Cabernet Sauvignon vines available to us, we have access to some of the best Cabernet in the Hunter (don't tell Max Lake though). This has been in new American oak and has some great cedar and forest berry fruit characters.
Vintages: 2007
White Label Cabernet Sauvignon Awards

Margan AGED RELEASE Wines

"These are chosen from our most distinctive batches, out of our best vintages. Handcrafted in limited volumes and released to only a few friends... Great Hunter vintages need time to show their full potential. We carefully cellar a limited volume of these great vintages of our White Label wine to share with you as an aged release."
Andrew Margan, Winemaker.

AGED RELEASE SEMILLON
The Beltree Vineyard was planted in the 1930’s by the Elliot family and is a typical example of a dryland Belford Semillon vineyard. Light alluvial soil on yellow clay  creates wines from the Semillon variety of lean citrus austerity. Toasty, vanillan hints wrapped around a strong acid backbone are typical of the style as it ages when made from Lower Hunter fruit. Enough citrus fruit and mineral finish to balance out the emerging middle palate.
Vintages: 2005 -2003
Margan Aged Release Semillon Awards

AGED RELEASE SHIRAZ
The grapes for this wine were picked from forty year old vines growing on the red basalt volcanic clay of the “Fordwich Sill” on our Timbervines Vineyard.   With an average yield of only one tonne per acre the fruit for this wine was intensely concentrated in flavour.  This wine is of full bodied density and displays a subtle combination of spicy pepper and tar like characters which are typical of Hunter Shiraz, with great palate length.
Vintages: 2005 -2003
Margan Aged Release Shiraz Awards