Seven Burch Family Wines to try

Burch Family Wines has been making wine in Western Australia for over 30 years. The family owned and operated company began in the Great Southern with Howard Park in 1986, and today encompasses three distinctive wine ranges – Howard Park, Marchand & Burch and MadFish Wines – as well as importing from French Champagne house Franck Bonville. 

Burch Family Wines operates across four regions in Western Australia: the Swan Valley, Margaret River, Pemberton and the Great Southern, with Marchand & Burch wines also produced in the Côte d’Or in Burgundy, France. “At Howard Park, we are fortunate to have access to a range of outstanding viticultural sites, which we have carefully nurtured to produce super-premium white wines,” says chief winemaker Nic Bowen. 

Nic was born into a winemaking family; his father and uncle are winemakers, and most of his school holidays were spent working in cellars and vineyards around Western Australia. “I was essentially cheap labour!” Nic says. After finishing school, Nic ventured into business and accounting, before eventually coming back to wine and completing a vintage in Bordeaux – and he was hooked. 

Howard Park chief winemaker Nic Bowen.

Nic returned to university to study winemaking and, after graduation, landed a position as an assistant sparkling winemaking working under Ed Carr. “My time with Ed Carr at Arras allowed me to see the range of sparkling wine production methods from diverse regions like Tasmania and the Adelaide Hills. This experience was invaluable, providing me with a deep understanding of sparkling wine production techniques and the nuances of different terroirs,” Nic says. 

Now at Howard Park, where Nic joined in 2021, he applies this knowledge to the Jeté sparkling wine range, which has undergone significant changes. The Jeté Premier Brut will now feature pinot noir and pinot meunier as the leading components instead of chardonnay, allowing for a greater range of flavour complexity. The Jeté range is crafted from Western Australia’s cooler climate zones of Pemberton and Great Southern. Nic says, “What I love about producing sparkling wine from WA is the ability to harness these unique terroirs and create wines that reflect the distinct characteristics of these cooler climate zones.”

This respect for terroir is similarly mirrored in the Marchand & Burch wines. For those who don’t know, Marchand & Burch is a collaboration between Pascal Marchand and Jeff Burch, who formed a fast friendship when they crossed paths in 1990 in the cellars of Domaine Comte Armand in Pommard. Marchand & Burch was born in 2007, with the two experts blending French tradition with Australian innovation for the range of elegant wines produced in the Côte d’Or in Burgundy, France and in Western Australia’s Great Southern region. 

Howard Park's feng shui-designed cellar door in Cowaramup, WA.

The Great Southern is also the birthplace of Howard Park, and is where they grow riesling and chardonnay. Nic describes these wines as unique, characterised by delicate, mineral-rich acidity and vibrant citrus-flavoured backbones. “The rieslings from this region are particularly notable for their precision and purity, making them a standout in our portfolio,” he says. 

So what’s next for Burch Family Wines? With access to some of the most stunning land on earth planted to grapes, it is their mission to ensure the grapes shine, producing wines that reflect the beauty and complexity of their origins. 

Below are seven wines from Howard Park and Marchand & Burch for you to try now.

Click through to read what Tasting Team member Jane Faulkner has said about the wines, and for more information visit burchfamilywines.com.au.