This year sees the iconic Barossa Valley winery Chateau Yaldara celebrate its 70th anniversary, and the brand is using the milestone to relaunch the brand in Australia.
Since the brand was acquired by Arthur Wang’s 1847 Wines in 2014 the company has focused on increasing its retail presence in China, but Chateau Yaldara General Manager Anthony Grundel, told The Lead that the owners were preparing to relaunch the brand in Australia, to coincide with the winery’s 70th anniversary on December 10.
“For us, the anniversary is the culmination of everything we’re building up to so ideally by the middle of November we’ll have our heads of agreement signed for our distribution with a view to start pushing the new Yaldara products in earnest down the east coast of Australia in the first week of December,” Grundel said.
Having been a popular brand among Australian consumers in the 1970s and 1980s Chateau Yaldara was sold by the Thumm family to Simeon Wines in the 1990s. In 2002 Simeon merged with McGuigan Wines in 2002 and became Australian Vintage Limited in 2008.
During this time the 10,000 tonne winery was used as the company’s Barossa hub and mainly produced premium red wines for its Nepenthe, McGuigan and Tempus Two brands while the Chateau Yaldara label was scaled back to European exports and fortifieds.
The brand is now planning to maintain its strong growth in China, but is also shifting its attention back to Australian consumers with the launch of a series of retro labels styled on the original labels used by the winery in its heyday.
“We’ve got a really strong team here now and we’re on the cusp of launching ourselves back into Australia and really drawing on the memories of those who have been here in the past, while also engaging with those new wine consumers who have surfaced in the last 15 years or so,” said Grundel.
“The retro labels started as a bit of fun but now it’s really become a driver for helping to tell the history of the place.
“Initially they were just designed to be a cellar door project but there’s been interest from our east coast distributors and even some of our international clients to take it to their markets so it’s kind of grown beyond our expectations, which is nice.”
The new Chateau Yaldara range will have a starting point of around $15, up to a super-premium range of around $100. Grundel said the goal was to move Chateau Yaldara’s image away from previous sub-$10 a bottle perceptions and re-instate it as a quality wine brand.
“We are really interested in creating the second and third sale, not just the first sale, and we really want to get people engaged and get them back here again,” he said.
“Having credible product in the bottle is part of that story and delivers on the authenticity and the expectation of how we want people to think about the company; it is back to its glory days and here’s proof in the bottle that we are actually delivering on what we say we’re going to do.”