Howard Park Leston Vineyard

Named after Jeff’s father and mentor, Leston Burch the ‘Leston Vineyard’ is the vine-producing property and home of Howard Park Wines in Margaret River.

When purchased by Jeff and Amy in 1988, the undulating partly cleared land was an attractive but run-down sheep farm with a run down cottage which was originally part of the West Australian Government Group Settlement Lots issued to pioneering families to develop agriculture in the Margaret River region in the 1920's.

With an outlook to maintain the aesthetics of the surrounding environment and to create a vineyard that exists harmoniously in the natural Australian environment, development began in 1995 with the first planting of vines occurring in 1996.

The Leston Vineyard is managed by Jeff’s brother David. David’s exceptional design ability and attention to detail is immediately evident when visiting the model wine estate. The Leston vineyard showcases both vine and natural Australian bush land with the pristine waters of the Wilyabrup River gently meandering through the vineyard and native wetlands.   The vineyard management philosophy acknowledges the benefits of achieving harmony between all associated lifecycles within and around the wine grape production process. The aim is to keep the human impact on the environment to a minimum and to target activity to specific areas only if and when it is required.

The soils and terrain at the Leston vineyard are the most suitable for producing premium quality wine in the Margaret River region. Extensive soil profile mapping in the vineyard has allowed Howard Park to match soil type to specific grape varieties to maximise varietal expression in the wines.

Individual vineyard blocks on Howard Park Leston Vineyard have been selected to produce Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes for our Howard Park single vineyard Leston Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon. Each vintage has received rave reviews from wine writers across Australia and the world reinforcing our belief in this vineyard to produce grapes of exceptional quality.

Leston Vineyard GPS Coordinates: 33o 49’ 51.04” S 115o 03’ 31.00” E

LESTON VINEYARD PLANTINGS

Total area under vine: 63.6 hectares  

• Shiraz = 10.9573 hectares / 27.08 acres
• Merlot = 5.2362 hectares / 12.94 acres
• Cabernet Sauvignon = 20.123 hectares / 49.72 acres
• Cabernet Franc = 6.0066 hectares / 14.84 acres
• Petit Verdot = 1.2169 hectares / 3.01 acres
• Chardonnay = 23.2019 hectares / 57.33 acres
• Semillon = 4 hectares / 9.88 acres