Following news of a projected 2006/2007 loss between $4-6 million and a 33% drop in its 2007 grape intake, McGuigan Simeon has put its 90,000-tonne capacity Loxton winery in South Australia’s Riverland for sale. This winery is 40,000 tonnes smaller than the same company’s gigantic Buronga complex, which is where the company intends to centralise its making of bulk and popular premium wines. McGuigan Simeon hopes to raise $50 million from the sale, in addition to the $10 million it is seeking for its 20,000-tonne Griffith winery, which it inherited with its purchase of Miranda Wines. The Loxton winery has changed hands several times in the last two decades. Initially built by a growers’ cooperative in 1949, it was sold to Penfolds in 1987, to Australian Vintage in 1993 and to Simeon Wines in 1997. Simeon then merged with McGuigan in 2002.
