Our Story
Family roots. Historic soil. Award-winning vines.
Coolangatta Estate is a family-owned and operated winery on the South Coast of New South Wales, proudly producing estate-grown wines on one of the region’s most historically significant sites.
Home to 25 acres of vineyard, a convict-restored village, and generations of hands-on dedication, Coolangatta Estate is where history, family, and wine come together.
A Legacy that began in 1947
In 1947, Colin Bishop purchased the Coolangatta property — beginning a new chapter for a site that dates back to 1822 as the first European settlement on the South Coast.
In its early years, Coolangatta was a working dairy farm. Greg Bishop, Colin’s son, and his siblings worked the land through changing seasons and shifting tides of regional agriculture. It wasn’t until the 1970s that the family began restoring the property’s historic buildings — laying the foundations for the Coolangatta Estate we know today.
From Dairy Farm to Destination
When Colin Bishop purchased Coolangatta Estate in 1947, the property was a run-down estate left to decay. A fire in the early 1940s had destroyed the main homestead, and many of the remaining buildings were in a serious state of disrepair — overgrown, weathered, and barely standing.
Still, what most would have written off, the Bishop family saw as worth saving. Beneath the damage was a story — and a history — they refused to let fade.
By the 1970s, restoration was underway. Led by Greg Bishop and his siblings, the family painstakingly restored the convict-built village, reusing original bricks, timber, and sandstone wherever possible. Buildings that once housed workers, supplies, and livestock were brought back to life — not as museum pieces, but as working parts of a living estate.
The work was hard, the progress slow, but the results enduring. Without modern machinery or major funding, it was a true family effort — fences rebuilt, roofs re-laid, and interiors re-fitted to retain their original charm while serving the needs of a growing property.
Each building today — from the cellar door to the accommodation suites — stands as a tribute to that restoration era. It’s history you can walk through, sip in, and sleep in — and a legacy we’re proud to preserve..
Sowing the Seeds of Shoalhaven Wine
By the time the buildings were restored and the estate was thriving again, Greg Bishop knew his future didn’t lie in dairy farming like his father’s. The land had more to give — and Greg had a different vision for what Coolangatta could become.
In the late 1980s, he began exploring the idea of planting vines. At the time, commercial viticulture on the South Coast was virtually unheard of, and the concept was met with plenty of scepticism — including from Colin himself. Grapes, after all, weren’t part of the region’s farming identity, and the coastal climate posed new challenges.
But Greg was determined.
After years of discussion and persistence, Colin granted Greg two acres on the eastern slopes of Mount Coolangatta. In 1987, those blocks were planted with Sauvignon Blanc — the first vines of what would become a remarkable chapter in Shoalhaven history.
The first harvest in 1990 produced Coolangatta Estate’s inaugural vintage and marked the birth of the South Coast wine industry. From that moment, Coolangatta was no longer just a restored estate — it was a working vineyard, and the start of something entirely new.
Around the same time, the Bishop family formed a connection with Tyrrell’s Wines in the Hunter Valley. What began as a supplier relationship evolved into a winemaking partnership that continues to this day, with Tyrrell’s vinifying all of Coolangatta’s estate-grown fruit.
Together, we’ve built a wine portfolio that has earned more than 2,200 awards, making Coolangatta Estate one of Australia’s most awarded wineries.
From the crisp freshness of our Semillon to the signature depth of our Chambourcin, every bottle tells the story of a family that believed in doing something different — and proved it could be done.
The Story Continues
From a once-forgotten colonial township to a thriving estate producing award-winning wines, Coolangatta Estate has always been built on belief — belief in the land, in family, and in what’s possible with hard work and heart.
Today, Ben and Natalie Bishop live and work on the property with their children, Harry and Katy, representing the third and fourth generations of the Bishop family. The vines are still hand-picked. The cellar door still welcomes visitors every day. And the historic buildings still stand strong — creaky floorboards, weathered walls, and all.
We’re proud of what this place has become: a property that honours its past while looking to the future. A place where stories are shared, glasses are raised, and history is poured into every bottle.
This is more than a winery — it’s our family home.
And we’re so glad to share it with you.
— The Bishop Family