Peter Weiss sells Southern Highlands farm
Fashion legend Peter Weiss and wife Doris have sold their rural escape, Wollumbi in the NSW Southern Highlands.
The estate that has been sold to the Cottle construction family comes with an exquisite French farmhouse surrounded by drystone walls amid acres of gardens approached by a 2.5 kilometre driveway off the highway at Marulan.
No sale price has yet emerged for the property set on the Uringalla Creek.
But their $15 million hopes matched the Southern Highlands pastoral record set in 2007 when Reg Grundy bought Comfort Hill along the highway at Sutton Forest from Michael Ball.
Wollombi comes complete with vineyards, olive groves and Red Angus cattle paddocks on 600 hectares.
Weiss, who turns 80 later this year, and his wife Doris, produce up to 6000 bottles of pinot gris and 3000 bottles of pinot noir in a good season, and recently suggested sparkling wine is coming.
Winter has been an unseasonably strong selling season in the Southern Highlands with local agent Bill Carpenter appointed by the Viennese-born impresario in March, with the sale achieved with not a daffodil yet in sight.
Peter Weiss, whose clothing brand helped define Australian fashion in the 1980s and 1990s, stumbled upon the property around two decades ago.
He secured what he saw as a very quaint, French-looking house on an isolated property that had a great Australiana rugged feel.
Weiss beileves the Southern Highlands region, which lies about half-way between Sydney and Canberra, is one of Australia's undiscovered gems.
While Weiss saw scope for any prospective buyer to further develop the Wollumbi business, he held firm views about the land being overdeveloped or broken up.
"My wish would be that it went to someone who would keep it intact – who would enjoy it and treasure it as much as we have.
"We've put a lot of heart, soul and effort into it and made it into a unique property," he said during the marketing.
With Wollumbi sold, the couple will split their time between Woollahra and Palm Beach, continuing their work as a benefactors of various musical organisations.
This article was first published in the Sunday Telegraph.