Great news for Tasmanian wine is the arrival on its doorstep of leading family-owned Victorian wine producer Brown Brothers, which has agreed with Gunns Ltd to buy its Tamar Ridge wine business for $32.5 million. Comprising the Tamar Ridge, Pirie, Devil’s Corner, Rosevears, Notley Gorge and Coombend brands, the business comprises three vineyards: Kayena (137ha), White Hills (83ha) and Coombend (160ha). It had sales of 58,000 cases in 2007. According to Gunns’ chief executive Greg L’Estrange, the sale also included the vineyard management of its winegrape managed investment scheme projects. Brown Brothers, which is currently attempting to persuade leading Tasmanian wine identity and current Tamar Ridge chief executive Dr Andrew Pirie to remain under contract with its new purchase, has been considering how global warming may impact its vineyards through drought and higher temperatures. Having recently adopted a strategy to source grapes from cooler areas, Brown Brothers jumped at the opportunity to buy a business whose southerly latitude reduces the risk of drought, associated high temperatures and scarcity of water. Ross Brown, chief executive of Brown Brothers, appreciates the opportunity to compete in the high-end pinot noir category and to expand the company’s resources for premium Australian sparkling wine. While Andrew Pirie welcomes the sale of the Gunns’ wine interests to a family company, Gunns says the sale will have no ‘real effect’ on the company’s bottom line, since it was currently operating around break even. Gunns, which bought Tamar Ridge from former beef baron Josef Chromy for $14.8 million in 2003 and then spent about $70 million on vineyards through managed investment schemes, remains keen to reduce its $661 million of debt by selling non-core assets. Its objective is to attract finance for the Bell Bay pulp mill. A by-product of this sale is that people like me are likely to start reviewing Tamar Ridge wines again.
