A top pinot district is attracting interest from overseas investors.
One of the country’s top pinot districts is attracting interest from overseas investors.
Is our most prized district for pinot noir passing out of New Zealanders’ hands? Draped across a north-facing crescent, 220-370m above sea level in the Cromwell
Basin, Bannockburn’s vineyards include some of the biggest names in Central Otago pinot noir, including Felton Road and Mt Difficulty.
The recent sale of the latter to American billionaire Bill Foley – who also owns Vavasour, Grove Mill, Goldwater and Te Kairanga – caught many by surprise. Founded in 1998 by the owners of four separate vineyards, Mt Difficulty produces a significant volume of impressive white and red wines. For about $55 million, Foley, who is based in Las Vegas, acquired all of the company’s assets, including 40ha of vineyards.
The star Felton Road winery was founded in 1992 by Stewart Elms, a former Dunedin hotelier, and bought by Nigel Greening, an Englishman, in 2000. Terra Sancta, the oldest producer, founded as Olssen’s in 1991, remains in New Zealand hands; so do Carrick, acquired in 2016 by Auckland-based Ying Zhong, and Akarua, established by Skeggs Group in 1996.
But Bald Hills, an 11ha site planted by Blair and Estelle Hunt in 1997, was bought by Isao Mita, a Japanese investor, in 2015, and other top vineyard sites have been sold, or leased on a long-term basis, to overseas wine producers.
Mark Weldon – former head of
NZX and MediaWorks – and Sarah Eliott, a branding consultant, bought Terra Sancta in 2011. The crucial factor driving land purchases in Bannockburn, says Weldon, is its strictly limited supply.
“Bannockburn is seen by overseas buyers as being the blue-chip land. It shares some of the characteristics of grand cru and premier cru land [in Burgundy] in that, with a river in front and DoC mountain land behind, there is a fixed amount of land and it cannot be extended. If bets on subregionality prevail, the land prices will accordingly grow in lockstep.”
Steve Green, a former part-owner of Carrick, who chairs New Zealand Winegrowers, adds that many of Bannockburn’s wine pioneers are nearing retirement age, with no family members keen to take over.
“There’s not enough capital in New Zealand to keep the industry growing, so we need overseas input.”