Macquarie director buys $8.2 million Avoca vineyard

The Macquarie Group veteran Greg Ward is back in the wine game. He's recently spent $8.4 million to buy the 5th Chapter Estate in the Southern Highlands.

The 40 hectare Avoca country estate had been in the hands of the Manasseh foods for two or so decades.

The brothers Roy and Michael paid $2.5 million in 1998 and planted the vines a year later. There are four hectares of vines with Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir plantings.

Aside from the winery and cellar door, there's a grand manor-like home with nine bedrooms and eight bathrooms in the Japanese gardens.

Ward, also a part-time motorhead, has been at Macquarie since 1996. 

He became head of banking and financial services group in 2013 and has driven the growth of Macquarie’s retail financial services business. 

Wine has been off Macquarie's group head of banking and financial services menu since 2010 when he sold Echo Ridge, up in the Hunter Valley's Pokolbin, for $2.2 million to Sydney fundie Michael Hill.

Meanwhile sone of Australia's biggest winemakers have agreed to change their supply agreements with grape growers, after Rod Sims ACCC raised concerns that the contracts contained terms which were likely to be unfair.