Prestige Property: Olio Mio Estate, Pokolbin, NSW

Olio Milo Estate presents the unique opportunity to acquire an opulent escape nestled into the world-renown Hunter Valley.

Located in Pokolbin, the Hunter Valley’s oldest continuous wine regions, the approximately 63-acre vineyard and olive grove arrives with 8-bedrooms, 6-bathrooms and 4 car parking.

Here, and with Southern European flair, the decadent home is split into 6-bedroom main residence and a separate 2-bedroom guest house.

Once guided up the long palm-lined driveway to the private entrance, the warm invitation of the Tuscan styled residence is immediately felt. The beautifully landscaped grounds feature a swimming pool, mature gardens, an abundance of outdoor entertaining areas – including a pizza oven and alfresco terrace – ideal for entertaining.

Once inside, the southern European charm extends throughout the home with floor to ceiling picture windows capturing panoramic views of Pokolbin valley and large open plan living room – complete with stoneworked wood-burning fireplace – allow you to settle in and relax.

The main residence sees three living areas alongside the kitchen as well as five bedrooms (three with ensuites).

Of the bedrooms, upstairs sees the master retreat, with dressing room, bathroom and sitting room with commanding views of the Pokolbin valley.

The lower level is complete with an office and a cellar – ideal for storing the Stormy Ridge wine the property produces.

The guest house sees interiors of a contemporary style and offers two bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom and its own private courtyard entrance.

Beyond the spacious accommodation, the property also produces Olio Mio premium olive oil from its grounds and holds a complete olive oil processing plant on site, as well as a six-acre vineyard that produces Stormy Ridge Wines.

Whilst gated and intensely private, the estate is remarkably close to Pokolbin village centre and is roughly 2 hours north of Sydney.

The listing is with Cullen Royle’s Deborah Cullen (+61 401 849 955) and Richard Royle (+61 418 961 575). Price guide, $7.5 million; cullenroyle.com.au

A historic Barbados estate with a 300-year-old villa and 11 acres overlooking the Caribbean Sea is now for sale with a guide price of $22.5 million.

The seller is Kit Braden, chairman of the U.K. branch of French beauty empire L’Occitane Group, whose family has spent every winter for the last 13 years at the island property, known as Fustic Estate.

“It’s very much a family house,” Braden said. “We love having a lot of people there. It’s a collection point to keep everyone together.”

The main villa dates to 1712, though it’s been reimagined and expanded substantially over the years.

It spans 13,000 square feet and features seven en suite bedrooms across three wings, as well as expansive verandas, stone courtyards and rows of louvered doors in gay Caribbean pastels.

In the 1970s, when the home was owned by Charles Graves—brother of British poet Robert Graves—it was reimagined by stage designer Oliver Messel, one of the foremost theater designers of the last century. Messel expanded the home, added a lagoon pool with a natural waterfall and other theatrical features, according to Braden.

“The whole place is a little bit magical,” he said.

The home sits about 350 feet above the water, and surrounded by lush gardens that slope towards the water.

“We look down through our garden—which is about 12 acres of tropical gardens and palm trees and wonderful old mahogany trees—onto the Caribbean,” Braden said.

He and his wife first saw the property on New Year’s Eve 2013, during a quick trip from where they were staying in Grenada.

The couple spent an hour walking the perimeter, some of it still untouched jungle, in the pouring rain.

“By the time we got back, I had fallen in love with it,” Braden said.

His wife, however, wasn’t so sure. But in Braden’s telling, a second visit in sunnier weather with two of their children brought her around.

“She had to be talked into that it was a jolly good idea; now she absolutely loves it,” he said.

When they bought the property, the edge that runs along the waterfront was a jungle, so they cleared the ridge and transformed it into gardens.

They also bought an additional sea-level parcel with two beach cottages, giving the property direct access to the water and the town below via a five-minute walk.

The property also has a 15-person staff, a reflecting pond, an outdoor pavilion suitable for yoga and a commercial grade kitchen that can serve more than 100 guests, according to a brochure from Knight Frank, which posted the listing in March. They did not provide further comment.

For Braden, the property is special because of its natural beauty, its proximity to the town of Saint Lucy and its history—which dates way way back to when the island of Barbados was first formed via tectonic activity.

“It was basically tectonic plates that collided about a million years ago so the seabed is the top of the hill,” Braden said. “We’re on coral rock.”

As a result, Fustic Estate includes an extensive network of caves that were likely used by the Arawaks, a Venezuelan fishing tribe that followed the fish to these islands about a thousand years ago.

“If the fish were good they’d camp here,” Braden said. “There’s evidence that they stayed there in those caves, they lived there in good winters.”

Now it’s someone else’s turn to live on the land shared by Arawaks, the plantation owners of 1712, Charles Graves and the Braden brood.

Prestige Property: Olio Mio Estate, Pokolbin, NSW

Own this opulent slice of the Hunter Valley.

Kit Braden, an executive at French beauty empire L’Occitane, has spent every winter for the past 13 years at the stone vacation home.