Choice Pickings At The Changing Of The Guard

Newcastle Herald

Wednesday August 20, 2008

JOHN LEWIS

ANYONE wanting to buy a vineyard or winery in Australia these days will be spoiled for choice.

At the macro level, Constellation Brands previously BRL Hardy aims to sell $200 million worth of vineyard and winery assets in South Australia and Western Australia.

At the same time, the giant Foster's Group is expected to cash in large parts of its troubled wine business.

Last December, Australian Vintage Ltd (AVL), formerly McGuigan Simeon, sold its Hunter Ridge vineyard and winery in Hermitage Road, Pokolbin, for $5.8 million to its founder and former CEO Brian McGuigan. And recently AVL sold its 90,000-litre-capacity Loxton winery in South Australia's Riverland to Indian winemaker Champagne Indage.

Managing director Dane Hudson has said that, of the $60 million sale price, $40 million would reduce the AVL's $150 million debt and the balance spent to upgrade the company's existing Hunter Valley cellar door in McDonalds Road, Pokolbin, and to re-establish winemaking on the site.

Up until the 2008 vintage AVL leased Hunter Estate winery, in Hermitage Road, Pokolbin, which has been put up for sale for $4.3 million by its owner Challenger Wine Trust.

The big Constellation Brands sell-off is expected to cost as many as 350 jobs. Up for sale are the Goundry winery and 500 hectares of land at Mount Barker in WA, the 115-year-old, 4500-tonne Leasingham winery at Clare and the 12,000-tonne Stonehaven winery at Padthaway in South Australia.

Constellation's WA Swan Valley bottling operations will be relocated to Reynella in South Australia.

It will retain ownership of the Leasingham, Goundry and Stonehaven brands along with its Amberley, Arras, Banrock Station, Barossa Valley Estate, Bay of Fires, Berri Estates, Brookland Valley, Chateau Reynella, Hardys, Houghton, Leasingham, Moondah Brook, Omni, Renmano, Stanley, Starvedog Lane, Stonehaven, Tintara and Yarra Burn labels.

On a micro level, some of the Hunter Valley's most attractive boutique operations are up for sale.

They include Sandalyn Wilderness Estate, Benwarin, Majors Lane Estate, Windsor's Edge, Hanging Tree, Herlstone vineyard, Terrain Estate and the Moon Mountain and Brokenback vineyards.

Selling agent Alan Jurd said the number of properties on the market was below that of previous years and was typical of the regular "changing of the guard" by boutique producers.

The 19-hectare Benwarin vineyard in Mistletoe Lane, Pokolbin, is for sale by expressions of interest.

Owned by Sydney information technology businessman Allan Bagley and his wife Janneke, Benwarin grabbed the spotlight at the 2006 Hunter Valley Wine Show when the Benwarin 2004 Chardonnay won the Murray Tyrrell Trophy for the best chardonnay of any vintage and a gold medal in the 2004 and older chardonnay dry white class. The Benwarin 2006 Verdelho won the trophy for the best current-vintage verdelho and a 56-point gold medal in the 2006 verdelho dry white class, and the Benwarin 2005 Chardonnay won a gold medal in 2005 chardonnay dry white class.

Sandalyn, in Wilderness Road, Rothbury, was established in 1988 by engineering project manager Lindsay Whaling and his wife Sandra and has a $2.7 million asking price. The 12.5-hectare property has olive groves, 7.7 hectares of vineyard, an attractive Tuscan-style home, with an adjoining winery, tasting room and underground cellar with the capacity to store 15,000 dozen cases of wine.

Tatler Wines, in Lovedale Road, Lovedale is one boutique producer that has become a buyer and a seller. Last month it bought the Cooper Wines vineyard next door from former Qantas pilot Max Cooper and his Qantas executive wife Vicki. At the same time, it sold and leased back a portion of its own vineyard. Owned by Sydney hoteliers Spiro and Theo Isakidis and former publican Tony Brown, Tatler now has 18.3 hectares of vineyard.

The Cooper property used to be part of the famous old Penolds Sparkling Vale vineyard but the vines had long gone by the early 1980s when Dr Newton Potter and his wife Ginny established the Allanmere wine venture.

Max and Vicki Cooper were encouraged into Hunter winemaking in 2001 by another Qantas pilot, Tim Windsor, and his wife Jessie, who now have their Windsor's Edge vineyard in Rothbury up for sale for $3.2 million. The 50.6-hectare property has nine hectares of vineyard, tourist accommodation, a leased restaurant and neat cellar door.

Majors Lane Estate has a $2.45 million asking price and Hanging Tree vineyard a $2.5 million price tag.

The 40.4-hectare Majors Lane property, with its fine restaurant, house, 18-year-old olive grove and 10.9-hectare vineyard, has been owned since 2001 by Sydney industrial and insurance law barrister Ian Judd and his lawyer wife Susan. Hanging Tree, which has 2.8 hectares of vines, is owned by Greg and Jane Perrett and Graeme and Karen Foster, who bought the nine-hectare property from Kees van de Scheur in 2001 years ago.

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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