Margan was established in 1996 by Lisa and Andrew Margan in the picturesque village of Broke, Hunter Valley, Australia’s oldest wine region. Second generation winemaker Ollie now joins the business giving the brand a fresh, contemporary perspective.
Margan have 90 hectares of distinguished vineyards, across two locations. These vineyards are planted to a mixture of 50-year-old vines, traditional to the Hunter as well as alternative varieties, planted and pioneered by us. Most of the vineyards are planted on the unique soil of the Fordwich Sill providing our wines with their special sense of place. All Margan wines are Estate Grown and Made as well as certified Sustainably Farmed.
Margan Restaurant offers acclaimed agri-dining and is regionally awarded for its focus on estate-grown produce. The Kitchen Garden and orchard was established in 2007 and now includes olive groves, estate-reared lambs, bees, and free-range chickens. Our farm to table menus are created around what we harvest from our property to maintain a hyper- local and seasonal focus.
We are proud to be leaders in environmental stewardship and are fully accredited with Sustainable Winegrowing Australia, one of the first in the Hunter to achieve this.
Margan has been rated a five-star winery (Halliday Wine Companion) since 2009, three times winner of the Hunter Valley Cellar Door of the Year, Viticulturist of the Year, Winemaker of the Year and NSW Tourism Hall of Fame winner in recognition of our cellar door, winery and restaurant. Margan Restaurant has been consistently recommended in the Good Food Guide since it opened its doors in 2007.
Andrew Margan
Lisa and I started Margan Wines in 1996 when I left Tyrrells after 20 years of employment. We had already planted five acres of our own vines on our Ceres Hill farm based in Broke (1989). In 1997 we built our winery on this property, and I started making wine for our own fledgling brand, Margan. We built and launched our wine tourism operations of cellar door and restaurant, in 2007 for our guests to visit us at ‘the home of Margan’.
Nearly 30 years later, we have expanded our vineyards to total around 90 hectares under vine. On these distinguished vineyards we have traditional varieties such as Semillon, Shiraz and Chardonnay, mostly planted in the late 1960’s. Additionally, we have alternative varieties that we have planted and introduced to the region including Barbera and Albarino. We have also pioneered ‘Field Blend’ styles including our Shiraz Mourvedre & Tempranillo Graciano Shiraz.
Our vineyards are all located in the Broke Fordwich sub region of the Hunter Valley. We are all estate grown and made, making wine from grapes from our own vineyards. The unique volcanic soil of the Fordwich Sill is one of the most important factors influencing the style of wines we make.
Over the last 40 years of living and working in the Hunter Valley I have been an active Board member of many representative associations and have always been a passionate advocate for the Hunter Valley wine industry at all levels. I am proud to have been awarded Hunter Valley Viticulturist of the Year 2015, Hunter Valley Winemaker of the Year 2021 and Hunter Valley Living Legend, 2025.
Andrew Margan
Lisa Margan
I am the co-founder and Director of Margan Family Wines & Restaurant, established by Andrew and I in 1996. We are based in the Broke Fordwich wine region of the Hunter Valley, Australia’s oldest continuous wine region. Margan Wines started with a bare farm which we named Ceres Hill after the Roman Goddess of agriculture and protector of the harvest. We planted a small vineyard, both gave up our ‘day jobs’ and launched Margan Wines, with three small children in tow.
I grew up in Sydney and moved to the Hunter in the late 1980’s when I married a winemaker. This ‘green change’ took some adjusting to, but I love this Valley and call it home. My background includes teaching, a master’s degree in nutrition and commercial cookery.
Andrew and I both lived and worked in Bordeaux, France, he as a winemaker and me as a chef. Here, I developed an appreciation for quality produce, technique and the unique appeal of food and wine in the context of a premium wine region. It inspired us to create the blueprint for our future which was to have our own wine business with an estate-grown and made focus which would include vineyards, winery, a cellar door and restaurant.
I have always been a strong advocate for the region and food, wine and hospitality industry, sitting on several boards, committees and mentoring programs.
I am proud to have been personally awarded:
2025 Hunter Valley Living Hospitality Legend
2021 Outstanding Contribution by an Individual, Hunter Culinary Association
2018 Outstanding Leadership in Foodservice Award, Women in Hospitality (National)
Lisa Margan
Ollie Margan
As part of the second generation, I have grown up alongside the establishment and growth of this business. I have done at some stage, almost every job imaginable here. What started with helping to pick grapes in our first vintage in 1997, to washing dishes in the restaurant from age 14, on to managing the warehouse and deliveries in my later teen years. Since 2021 I have been in a role of leadership and management, after a 10-year work/study sabbatical in South Australia, where I completed a Bachelor of Oenology and Viticulture at Adelaide University.
In that time, I would head back to the Hunter Valley each year for harvest and managed to gain experience elsewhere at wineries in Central Otago (NZ), Bordeaux (FRA), Mosel (GER) and the Adelaide Hills. Now having completed over 20 harvests (they don’t seem to get any easier!).
My role at Margan is diverse and leans not only on my tertiary education by way of viticultural and winemaking direction, but also on my time spent running hospitality venues and working in the wine trade. I am heavily involved in our brand management through distribution and onsite visitation. We have an important story to tell and I hope give it a voice wherever possible.
We are fortunate to manage everything we produce entirely from soil to the glass or plate, and whilst we endeavour to be as least impactful along the way, it requires a tremendous amount of care and attention. It is an absolute privilege to wake up each day and call that my job.
Ollie Margan
Viticulture & Biodiversity
The Hunter Valley is a warm grape growing region with a maritime influence. The winters are cold with frosts and the summers are hot. Mostly the nights cool down in summer creating an important diurnal temperature difference which cools the grapes, evens out ripening and helps to maintain acidity in the grapes which is important for quality wine production.
Our vineyards are mostly planted to the Hunter Valley classics- the varieties introduced to the region from the 1830’s- as well as some pioneering varieties. We have around 20 hectares each of Shiraz and Semillon and 18 hectares of Chardonnay with smaller plantings of Verdelho, Albariño, Barbera, Cabernet Sauvignon, Mourvèdre, Tempranillo & Graciano and Merlot.
Almost all our vineyards are planted with vines on their own roots except for Timbervines where we have grafted ‘old clone’ Semillon and Shiraz to original 60-year-old rootstocks. The old clones are traditional to the Hunter and have adapted over many decades to the local terroir. They have a long and distinguished history of outperforming other clones in this region and in regards to final wine quality we are lucky to have them.
All our vineyards have irrigation to supplement average rainfall where required to ensure healthy growth but never to enhance yields. In fact, our average yield per hectare is around two to three tonnes for red grapes and three to five tonnes for whites, which is low compared to global averages. This gives us concentrated fruit characters in our grapes and the wines they make, a signature of the Margan style. Rainfall traditionally arrives in mid-February when the last of the red grapes are being harvested. However, in a climate of global warming we also have been picking earlier and have tended to miss these inconvenient rains.
Viticulture & Biodiversity
Responsible
Winemaking
Margan was established in 1996 and has always had a sharp focus on Responsible Tourism, taking a proactive, strategic approach. We consider environmental, social, economic, and ethical responsibilities and measure the impacts.
As farmers, we are responsible for nurturing our land to pass it on in better condition, creating value and security for future generations. Embracing sustainable practices helps create a purposeful brand story that supports the ‘greater good’. We have been farming sustainably for more than a decade and certified since 2016. We follow regenerative farming practices across our property and our Restaurant Kitchen Garden & Orchard are managed organically.
Margan operate in a small rural region, so our ESG-Environmental and Social Governance is important to us and our local community. Our contributions include advocacy: protecting heritage vineyards; opposing coal seam gas mining; contributing to Land Care initiatives; supporting the RFS; and sitting on committees that support, protect and promote the Hunter Valley, Australia’s oldest wine region. Additionally, we support many local charities and ‘worthy causes’. We genuinely acknowledge our First Nations people of this region, the Wannarua.
Responsible
Winemaking
Environmental Management Plan
As farmers, looking after the land for future generations is important to us. Our estate grown-estate made ethos minimises our carbon footprint and contributes to what makes us unique.
Margan Wines & Restaurant was formally certified through Sustainable Winegrowers Australia, in 2019. This means we farm in a way that does not deplete natural resources or compromise the land for future generations. Our goal is long term ecological balance.
From the very start we have always believed that as farmers and current custodians of this land we have a responsibility to look after it so that future generations will also be able to enjoy it. Our farming practices reflected this.
In 2010 we took a more structured and measurable approach to how we farmed our land and developed an Environmental Management Plan (EMP) to reduce our impact across all business operations. This has involved a clear and detailed strategy to measure and reduce our emissions via the four basic pillars of sustainability: reduction of greenhouse gases; energy efficiency; waste reduction and water management.
In 2013 our EMP became certified under the Freshcare and Winemakers Federation Australia Entwine Program. It benchmarks to the ISO14000 series for International best practice in environmental stewardship. We were the first in the Hunter to achieve this and are considered leaders in this field. This covers all business operations including vineyard, winery, restaurant and hospitality and considers the impact these have on the environment. Data is tracked and reported yearly, as well as stringent auditing from our certifier, Fresh Care every 3 years.
In 2019 this accreditation was updated to Sustainable Winegrowers Australia and Freshcare membership. Freshcare are accreditors of the Australian fresh food Industry.
Currently we focus on regenerative farming. employ several organic and biodynamic farming practices, but we are not certified. In the vineyard we minimise sprays especially of pesticides and herbicides and we limit copper and sulphur use as recommended by organic and biodynamic farming practices. We focus on maximising vine and soil health by reducing disease, weeds and pests in the vineyard. Mulching and cover crops reduce weeds, keeps the soil moist as well as adding organic matter to enrich it.
The Margan Restaurant Kitchen Garden was established in 2007 and has always followed organic garden principals, although remains uncertified as it sits adjacent to the vineyard which is not certified.
The pathway of regenerative and sustainable farming is long and ongoing. It is a huge undertaking and an ongoing journey, but we are committed to it and we get better at it each year.
Environmental Management Plan