Howard Park is one of the premier family-owned wineries in Western Australia, producing a range of handcrafted wines from the state’s premier grape regions of Margaret River and Great Southern. Pioneers of the Western Australian wine industry, Jeff and Amy Burch and their children Natalie, Richard and David, are leaders of the pack of Australia's youngest wine state. Since its inception in 1986, Howard Park’s philosophy has been to craft outstanding wines of great character, balance and elegance with a tireless commitment to quality.
Like many of the great Margaret River estates, Howard Park started as a Burch family side project. In 1986, John Wade, while working as a winemaker at Plantagenet Wines, made a Riesling and Cabernet at Denmark Agricultural College and labelled them in honour of his father Howard. During this time, John attended a lunch in Perth as a guest and sat next to Jeff Burch. Over this lunch a friendship was formed and not long after Jeff and his wife Amy became partners in Howard Park. Two years later, Jeff Burch purchased a picturesque 138 acres of pasture in Margaret River that has the Wilyabrup creek running through it and in the early 90s they added Chardonnay to the Howard Park stable under the MadFish label. Known for it's cool-climate characters and striking depiction of the Aboriginal water turtle that symbolises perseverance and tolerance on the label, MadFish is one of Australia’s most recognisable wine brands.
HOWARD PARK WINES
Over the next decade, Jeff’s brother David and sister Lesley came on board and foundations for a new winery and cellar door at Leston vineyard were poured as the flagship single vineyard range of Scottsdale Cabernet and Leston Shiraz was released. By this stage, John had left and Howard Park-MadFish became a Burch family operation. As the wine stable grew and the quality increased, the accolades started to roll in. Jeff and Amy’s daughter Natalie joined the business, and the Burch family combined forces with Burgundian winemaker and biodynamic ambassador Pascal Marchand on a project to produce wines from both WA and Burgundy under one label. The Marchand & Burch range includes French bubbles (Cremant), Pinot and Chardonnay and Australian Shiraz, Chardonnay and Pinot.
Today, family is still at the fore with Jeff CEO, Amy GM and marketing director, David managing the vineyards, daughter Natalie managing operations and sons Richard and David managing east coast sales and marketing.
HOWARD PARK WINERY
The Howard Park Cellar Door is set on 138 hectares and located less than 5 minutes from the town of Cowaramup. The team at Howard Park welcome visitors warmly and offer tastings of depth that embrace Howard Park’s heritage and provenance: the vision of one family, two generations, two wine regions and four vineyards. Positioned on the highest point of our Leston vineyard, the award-winning structure has a careful balance of natural materials, including native timber, concrete and steel. In its design, the Burch family wanted to create a modern building designed to grow old – a concept synonymous with crafting age-worthy wines.