Our history

Born into a family of early Western Australian settlers, an extraordinary pioneering lifestyle has led vigneron winemaker David McGowan to create Treeton Estate in the Margaret River wine region.

From his open fishing smack at the tender age of 18, he aimed at the wild blue sea and started on a lifetime of adventure: cray fishing north of Perth in the 60’s; being landed on a beach to dredge a new harbour, King Bay, now known as Dampier; surviving turtle fishing days along the north-west coast of Western Australia.  The fisherman later became head of the School of Maritime Studies at Fremantle TAFE.

Drinking red wine on cold nights around warm beach fires with like-minded WA fishing families and a trip through Europe where he picked grapes for a season in some of the great wine regions of France  led him to start research into the wine industry. 

Treeton Estate was born when David purchased the Cowaramup property from a dairy-farming family in 1982.  After being granted permission from existing Margaret River wineries to source cuttings, the first grape vines were propagated in 1983 and Treeton Estate was created.  The business of creating world class wine is a long, slow road and no corners were cut on ensuring the vines, like the ones he had tended in France, were planted for the generations to come. 

Friends and family helped plant the cuttings in 1986 and the first bottle of wine was Shiraz 1991.  That year the vines produced 6 tonnes of fruit.  The Treeton Estate vineyards now produce between 40-50 tonnes of fruit per vintage.

David and his wife, Corinne, moved to the south-west from Fremantle in 1992.  It was an easy transition after having met local families and friends over the preceding years driving backwards and forwards from Fremantle.  In those transit years, all available holidays and weekends were spent on the development of the project.  Today there are 17 acres of vines planted around a perfectly frost-free hill.

In the early days, David learned the winemaking process by working the first two vintages alongside the contract winemaker.  From the third vintage onwards, he took advice from consultants and has developed his own highly-successful winemaking style. 

Continuing his passion for education, David was Regional Coordinator for Technical Education in the SW Region of WA at the time that wine industry courses were implemented in support of the developing wine and tourism industries around Margaret River.