Cashed-up Canadian-based Vincor International, North America’s fourth largest wine maker, has bought the ambitious Goundrey Wines from WA’s Great Southern Region for a reported A$53.7 million, which seems rather a lot of money to be paying for a brand of generically sourced unwooded chardonnay. Still, if you raise US$120 million for an acquisition, you have cash to spare. Vincor has established a substantial sales network in the US and has been very visible around Australia, looking for a suitable brand to push into these US connections. According to Donald Triggs, Vincor’s president and CEO, Goundrey has an ‘ability to produce and market large quantities of premium and super premium branded wines’. Apparently about 85% of Goundrey’s projected 2002 sales fit into the ‘super-premium’ area, which shows just how ridiculous this sort of terminology has now become. Prior to this purchase, Vincor was previously in talks with both McGuigan and Cranswick.
