Our family.
The farmhouse is where the work comes together: wine at the centre, seasonal food from the farm, and a chance to experience Glenarty Road as a whole.
What came before shapes what comes next.
Glenarty Road has been home to the McDonald family for five generations. Across that time it has moved through subsistence farming, sheep, vineyard, garden and farmhouse table—each generation responding to the land and carrying the work forward.
Today, Sasha and Ben are the custodians of 240 acres in Karridale, bringing farming, wine and food together as one expression of the place they call home.
Ben McDonald
Ben loves dirt.
Some would say he is almost obsessed with growing things, earning him the endearing title of 'Young McDonald', who has a farm.
At nineteen, he planted the home vineyard and has continued evolving the family farm ever since.
A farmer and grower at heart, Ben connects the vineyard with the paddocks, more than 240 fruit and nut trees, vegetable gardens, sheep and Tamworth pigs. His work carries the family’s agricultural traditions forward while finding new ways for each part of the farm to contribute.
Sasha McDonald
Sasha guides the vines and wines from pruning through to bottling. She completed her Viticulture and Oenology degree at Curtin University in 2013 and developed her practical experience through vintages at Xanadu, Cullen and Chapel Down in the United Kingdom.
Her 2013 vintage at Cullen shaped her commitment to sustainable grape growing and attentive, minimal-intervention winemaking—an approach that continues to guide Glenarty Road today.
The vintage that changed everything.
In early 2014, Sasha arrived at 70 Glenarty Road to buy Shiraz fruit for her own wine label. Ben arrived late after a morning surf, three days before leaving for a month in Byron Bay, with plans to pull out the vineyard when he returned.
Instead, they picked and made the 2014 Shiraz together. That vintage became the beginning of their partnership and the farming dream that would become Glenarty Road.
In the early 1940s, Ben’s great-grandfather Thomas Hubert McDonald boarded a train from Wickepin and settled on McDonald Road. A few years later, his eldest son William “Aussie” McDonald left the family property and established this farm on Glenarty Road, after it had been abandoned under the Group Settlement Scheme.
To retain the lease until land rights were granted, settlers were required to clear five acres of native bush each year. Aussie cleared or ringbarked large jarrah and marri trees, allowing sunlight to reach the ground so pasture could be established for livestock.
Founding the farm
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The early farm operated through subsistence agriculture: cows provided milk and cream, whey was fed to pigs, and vegetables grew in the loamy soil around the farmhouse. In the 1960s, Ben’s father Peter took over and established sheep as the farm’s primary focus.
Ben later studied viticulture while helping plant the Alexander Bridge estate, now the Vasse Felix Karridale vineyard, before planting the home vineyard in 1997. Although vines brought a new direction, sheep remained central. Ben continued Peter’s legacy through Margaret River Grass-Fed Lamb, bringing livestock, vineyard and biodiversity together within the evolving farm.
From subsistence to sheep and vines
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Opening the farmhouse
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The cellar door opened in July 2017 inside the original farm workshop, built by Aussie McDonald in the 1950s. Fallen marri trees from the property were milled on the farm and handcrafted by Ben and his mates into the tasting bar, walls and tables, carrying the material history of the farm into its new purpose.
The restaurant followed in December 2017 after Sasha and Ben hosted their wedding reception at the farmhouse and fed 150 family members and friends. That celebration revealed how naturally food completed the experience, allowing the wine, livestock, garden and seasonal produce to be shared together around one table.
The next generation
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Archer, Scarlett, Max and Freya are the latest generation growing up at Glenarty Road. The farm is their home before it is a businessa place shaped by animals, harvests, visitors and the changing seasons.
Archer now shares that experience through farm tours, offering guests the perspective of someone who has grown up knowing how the vineyard, paddocks and farmhouse connect.
It takes a village
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Glenarty Road is family owned, but it has never been a two-person undertaking. Farmers, vineyard hands, gardeners, winemakers, chefs, hosts and seasonal crew each carry a different part of the work.
Some are here throughout the year; others arrive with vintage, harvest, summer dining and events. Together, their knowledge and care turn the values of Every Acre into the daily experience of the farm.
Come and taste where it begins.
Join us at the farmhouse table, taste the wines or walk beyond the gate into the vineyard, garden and paddocks.