Margaret River winery is set to acquire another winery from the region, Watershed Premium Wines, in a deal reportedly worth $20m.
The deal is still subject to approval from Watershed shareholder approval and will include 80-hectares of Watershed’s vineyard in the Bussell Highway as well as the cellar door and restaurant. It comes three years after Vasse Felix bought 37.5-hectares from Watershed three years ago.
Vasse Felix CEO, Peter Holmes a Court, told Business News Western Australia: “In 2015 Vasse Felix purchased a portion of the Watershed property on the other side of Bussell Highway. The fruit has proven to be excellent, particularly the Chardonnay, so for us the opportunity to expand this asset is really exciting.”
Watershed’s Managing Director, Geoff Barrett, said: “It’s naturally sad to be selling the Watershed Vineyard, but we’re delighted a leading, local winery is taking over.
“But at the end of the day we received an offer which we believe was fair and reasonable and as directors we have to act in the best interests of the shareholders.”
He added: “We’ll continue to market our award winning wines and operate our very successful cellar door and restaurant for now.”
Vasse Felix said that it expects the purchase will increase its production by up to 10 per cent.