About Lillydale Estate - the Winery
Lillydale Estate
Proudly owned by the McWilliam family, Lillydale Estate consistently produces very high quality, award winning wines. Managed by Max McWilliam himself, Lillydale Estate's restaurant and catering facilities are like another world away
Produced from premium grapes grown on the Lillydale Estate's vineyards and selected growers within the Yarra Valley, Lillydale Estate is one of the most awarded wineries in Victoria. The lucky Lillydale Estate winemaking team produce award winning fine wines while gazing across the vineyards and foothills of the beautiful Yarra Valley. In addition to a proud history of winning gold medals at national wine shows around Australia, some of Lillydale Estate's most prestigious awards have included trophies for the Best Victorian Red Wine and Best Victorian White Wine at the Royal Melbourne Wine Show.
The Yarra Valley is one of Australia’s premier cool-climate wine growing regions. It experiences consistently cool to mild weather, which allows for the slow, even ripening of fruit and produces long-lived wines of the highest quality. In the late 1890s the Yarra Valley was producing wines regarded as among the finest in the country. However, with the Great Depression of the 1930s, a shift in consumer tastes, and changing agricultural economics, saw the early Yarra Valley vineyards all but disappear.
With the growing interest in premium table wines during the 1960s and 1970s, came the search for new and promising viticultural districts, the Yarra Valley quickly attracting the interest of some of Australia’s most enterprising and talented winemakers. Lillydale's two vineyards, Morning Light and Sunnyside, were among the first to re-establish in the Yarra Valley in 1976. The two vineyards purchased by the McWilliam family in 1994 are the major source of fruit for McWilliam’s Lillydale Estate range. The remainder is sourced from a rigorous selection of the Yarra Valley’s best vineyard sites.
The diverse fruit supply provides McWilliam’s winemakers with a broader range of blending options, and the ability to produce Lillydale Estate wines that are high in quality and consistent in style from year to year despite varying vintage conditions. The Morning Light Vineyard takes its name from the ship that transported McWilliam’s founder, Samuel McWilliam, from Ireland to Melbourne in 1857. Sunnyside was the name of the first winery and vineyard he established at Corowa in New South Wales in 1877.
Lillydale Estate's cellar door holds gold medal winning wines (Lillydale Estate Chardonnay, Cabernet Merlot, and Gewürztraminer) and occassionally offers other wines from other McWilliam's wineries around Australia. The Estate's cellar offers visitors the opportunity to taste its fine Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz, Rose, Cabernet Merlot and Gewürztraminer. Private parties and functions are catered at the 40-seat restaurant, and the larger adjacent Pavilion.
Mark your diary and join 20,000 like minded wine, food and music lovers on the biggest weekend of the wine festival calendar. Every year in mid-February, Lillydale Estate joins other Yarra Valley wineries for the annual Grape Grazing Festival, a weekend full of fun and frivolity. The festival spans the Valley taking in 25 wineries, with a focus on beautifully crafted wine, and superb food.
McWilliam’s award-winning Lillydale Estate range, overseen by McWilliam’s Chief Winemaker Jim Brayne, exhibits classic cool-climate characters. McWilliam’s entire range of red, white and fortified wines, as well as limited-release Cellar Door only wines, are available for tasting at McWilliam’s Lillydale Estate, which also comprises a cellar door and 80-seat restaurant managed by Max McWilliam. The Lillydale Estate Restaurant offers guests a good selection of McWilliam’s Wines at cellar door prices, including many by the glass.
