Accolade Wines has outlined plans to sell two of its South Australian wineries after it conducted a thorough assessment of its wine footprint.
The winemaker said that while it has put the two wineries on the market it will be retaining all its South Australian brands and that it remains committed to the region.
CEO Robert Foye said: “We recently conducted a thorough assessment of our wine footprint to understand the capacity to support the growth of our wine brands and to ensure that each site can run sustainably. As a result, we have made two decisions regarding our sites.
“In response to the increasing global demand for Petaluma and Croser, these brands have reached capacity at Woodside Estate and outgrown the site. Therefore, we have made the decision to sell this facility and transfer all winemaking of the Petaluma and Croser portfolio to the spiritual home of Accolade Wines and our state-of-the-art facility at Tintara.
“With a long history of Adelaide Hills winemaking, Tintara has a phenomenal barrel cellar, amazing winemakers and a sizeable site that can accommodate all fruit from the Petaluma and Croser vineyards and family of grower vineyards. It will enable us to produce even more quality Petaluma wine that people have come to know and love.
“We are investigating new locations for the Petaluma Cellar Door to reach even more Petaluma fans and provide new and interesting experiences for wine and food lovers. In the meantime, we will keep trading in the current location until the sale is completed. We will retain our Adelaide Hills vineyards in Summertown and Mount Barker.
“Secondly, our assessment also determined that we do not have enough white wine grapes that require processing in the Barossa to maximise the capability and size of the Krondorf winery. Therefore, we are selling this facility so that a potential buyer can more efficiently leverage the strong white wine making capabilities of this winery. Our Grant Burge white wine grapes will be processed at our Tintara and St Hallett wineries in vintage 2021 onwards.
“While we have made the decision to sell these sites, Petaluma, Croser and Grant Burge remain an important part of brand portfolio and we have decided to produce them elsewhere to support their ongoing and planned growth.
“All employees who are potentially impacted by these changes have been informed and we will continue to support them throughout this transition. We hope that the majority of our employees can be retained by us at one of our Accolade Wines sites or by the new owners.”
Accolade will retain five wineries, six cellar doors, two state of the art facilities and 584 employees in South Australia and Foye said the company will continue to invest in the region and that it has “plans in place regarding the opportunities we see in South Australia in the future.”