It’s not every day that I find myself in complete and total agreement with Brian McGuigan. When he says, however, that despite what people might think, ‘Australia doesn’t have enough vineyards’, I’m with him all the way. There aren’t enough people developing new large vineyards in Australia right now, so McGuigan Simeon deserves congratulations for buying the 2,300 acre property of Two Rivers near Swan Hill, on the Murray River near Victoria. The property already has 550 acres under vine, and McGuigan Simeon reckons it will plant an additional and rather phenomenal 1150 acres by October. Glad I’m not thumping those posts in. The company expects this vineyard, one of the country’s largest, to add another 1.6 million cases to its overall production. ‘We need to add another 10,000 tonnes of grapes to our production every year for the next five years to satisfy demand’, says McGuigan, who has put on the record that he will start a project of similar scale next year. The US giant, Gallo Wines, has been increasing its stake in McGuigan Simeon. Gallo already distributes the company’s Black Swan brand in the US.
