![\"Someone](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/16f9fbf7-7ab9-43a6-80bc-f60075d73ff7.jpeg\")
Someone once tried to call Angelo Puglisi the “Godfather” of Queensland’s wine industry, but apart from his Sicilian heritage, there’s nothing gangster about this 82-year-old. (Nine)<\/p>\nSomeone once tried to call Angelo Puglisi the “Godfather” of Queensland’s wine industry, but apart from his Sicilian heritage, there’s nothing gangster about this 82-year-old.<\/p>\n
His heart is huge, dedicating his entire life to growing what everyone said was impossible – a winery in Queensland.<\/p>\n
And now his beloved Ballandean Estate is up for sale.<\/p>\n
Someone once tried to call Angelo Puglisi the “Godfather” of Queensland’s wine industry, but apart from his Sicilian heritage, there’s nothing gangster about this 82-year-old. (Nine)<\/p>\n
“You know, there were days when I used to go down into the Barossa and the Hunter, and they’d laugh at me, and they’d say, how can you grow make wine in Queensland? It’s tropical! And my response to that always was, come and live with me for one week in June any time you like,” Angelo told A Current Affair.<\/p>\n
Ballandean Estate is located at the frostiest tip of southern Queensland, three hours south-west of Brisbane, on the Granite Belt just south of Stanthorpe.<\/p>\n
The property has been in the same family for the last 95 years, first purchased as a vegetable farm by Angelo’s grandfather in 1930.<\/p>\n
“I was born and brought up and grew up on this farm. I know every bit of soil – where the wet spots are, where the dry spots are, shallow, rocky, whatever,” he said.<\/p>\n
It’s how he managed to turn the property into a commercial winery with wife Mary.<\/p>\n
“To see the girls grow up, and, you know, have their years in here as well, and seeing grandchildren and our great granddaughter as well. So I think it’s time you know that we move on, ” Mary said.<\/p>\n
You see at 82 years old, Angelo is ready to retire.<\/p>\n
It’s hard to believe when you see him in action, hand pruning some 200,000 grape vines across 190 acres.<\/p>\n
But that’s the secret to Ballendean’s success – it’s personal and very much a family business that daughters Leeanne and Robyn also live and breath.<\/p>\n
“I think the industry just wouldn’t be here without what Mum and Dad have done,” Robyn told A Current Affair.<\/p>\n
“You know, it was, it’s been more than 50 years of effort and passion and going against what people said could be achieved in the area,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I had a gentleman the other day who said … you were seven when you took me on a winery tour and I was like ‘oh what did I tell you, was it good?’ And he said ‘well we’re still coming’,” Leeanne said.<\/p>\n
But what will the sisters do without wine in their lives once the property sells?<\/p>\n
“There will always be wine in my world,” joked Leeanne.<\/p>\n
“There will always be Tuesday, Wednesday night wine in Leeanne’s world,” Robyn agreed.<\/p>\n
Over the decades, Ballandean’s wines have claimed countless awards – nationally and internationally.<\/p>\n
There are your common drops like Ballandean’s shiraz and merlot.<\/p>\n
But the brand really prides itself on its rare offerings, like their Saperavi, an ancient Georgian wine that very few ferment.<\/p>\n
“It’s an inky purple and intense boutique like Ribena,” Robyn said.<\/p>\n
“This result comes from love and passion and attention to detail,” Angelo adds.<\/p>\n
It’s why the family is in no hurry to sell.<\/p>\n
They want the right buyer – someone who shares the same passions and standards.<\/p>\n
“It will be hard, but I think we’re obviously looking forward to the change as well and handing it over to someone who can bring it to another level,” Mary said.<\/p>\n
“We’ve built a big business. We’ve built a successful business. It was a dream of mine to create something like this, and it my dream came true. It never turned into a nightmare,” Angelo said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Someone once tried to call Angelo Puglisi the “Godfather” of Queensland’s wine industry, but apart from his Sicilian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-152516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}