The Hawkesbury Harvest Farm Gate Trail: Vicary's Winery

Number 44 Map 3 Hawkesbury Harvest Farm Gate Trail maps

The drive along the Northern Road from the M4 to Luddenham is surprisingly rural. Cattle graze in paddocks and open land seems to stretch to the mountains in one direction and the city in the other.

Still, finding a vineyard/winery so close to the sprawling suburbs of outer Sydney is somewhat unexpected!

87 years ago(in 1923) Cecil Vicary sold his first wines from the winery, the grapes having been planted in 1918. It is rumoured that he won the 40 acres that comprise the vineyard in a poker game in 1916!

Chris Niccol, the current owner of the vineyard and winery, was first introduced to grape vines as a young boy, when a seed in the yard of his home at Emu Plains grew into a healthy vine (one which still exists today!). On leaving high school, Chris worked for a time at Minchinbury, and then undertook the highly regarded Oenology (Wine Science) course at Roseworthy Agricultural College in South Australia. He came to Vicary's in 1984 as a winemaker after stints working in the Hunter, Clare and Barossa Valleys and ten years later bought the business.

Chris decribes himself as a "dirt winemaker" - he loves to get his hands dirty amongst the vineyards and with the grapes. All the crushing and bottling is done here at the winery, with the main variety of grape grown being a Chambourcin - a French hybrid which is resistant to fungus, so important in this region. It produces a soft, intensely red purple wine with berry and plum flavours. Chris is also the winemaker for 5 other vineyards in the Sydney region.

It is a tough business. Fire, winds and drought have all had their impact here. Yet Chris, as with all of the producers I have met on the Farm Gate Trail, enjoys what he is doing here and seems philosophical about the difficulties involved.

The old woolshed - constructed in the 1890s - is used for weekly bush dances - an important supplementary income when working in the fickle wine business. Picnics and barbeques can also be held in the grounds near the cellar door.