McLeish Estate Wines 2026 Events Recap.
As the McLeish team returned to the Estate on Saturday evening after a wonderful afternoon of great company and great wines on the Harbour for the Sydney Wine Cruise, we couldn’t help but reflect on what a fantastic year 2026 has been for McLeish Estate.
The year started with a fantastic vintage that saw a great yield of our single vineyard estate grown fruit including clean, crisp Semillon and earthy, concentrated Shiraz. We released our beautiful light, bright white wines midyear and will be bottling our reds just before the end of year to be released after a year or 2 in our climate controlled storage.
Jessica McLeish also had a chance to lovingly recreate and put the finishing touches on the much-awaited return of the 2025 Culloden Sparkling Shiraz after almost 10 years of not having it available in the Cellar door.
In March we hosted the Vine to Glass Vintage Festival at the Estate as a celebration of the end of vintage with local live music and woodfired pizza truck, as well as barrel rolling races and a grape stomping relay!
May also saw our first collaboration with Bush River Kitchen in the Hawkesbury with an intimate, gourmet, long lunch inspired by foraged food, fire and fine wine. The guests and team enjoyed it so much a second weekend collaboration was planned on the spot for the Truffle Luncheon series. These truffle inspired long lunches were held in August and guests were treated to tastes of truffle infused cuisine as well as an exclusive bracket of some of McLeish Estates most iconic wines; the 2026 Reserve ‘Maryanne’ Semillon, 2013 Cellar Reserve Semillon and the 2007 Cellar Reserve Semillon.
Back at the Estate in September, the iconic Hunter Highland Lunch was again hosted by the McLeish Family with the Maitland City Bagpipes and Drum band and Highland dancers keeping spirits high and entertaining guests, and of course Haggis, tatties and neeps served throughout the 3-course luncheon.
Spring in the Hunter Valley was also awards season where the 2026 Dwyer Rose was awarded the Trophy for Best Rose at the 2026 PFK Hunter Valley Wine Show. The 2013 Cellar Reserve Semillon also brought home a Gold Medal at the 2026 Hunter Valley Wine Show and at the 2026 ICC Sydney NSW Wine Awards, as well as a Silver medal at the 2026 Hunter Valley Boutique Wine Show.
Most notably though, the Trophy for Best Aged Semillon 2024 & Older went to our 2013 Cellar Reserve Semillon at the 2026 NSW Small Winemakers Show in Forbes for the second year in a row.
Alongside these awards McLeish Estate have also proudly retained our 5 Red Star rating with James Halliday and were recognised again by The Real Review as being one of the 2026 Top Wineries Australia.
As we look forward to what the holiday season and upcoming 2027 vintage will bring, we would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to our Members and guests for joining us at our range of events throughout the country and here at our Cellar Door in the Hunter Valley. Our 2027 events calendar is already shaping up with key dates being released soon, so keep an eye on your inboxes and follow us on our social media for updates.
Cheers to the wine!
Bob, Maryanne and Jessica McLeish and the McLeish Estate team!