Substantial winery operation opportunity

One of Hawke’s Bay’s best known verticallyintegrated wine operations – featuring multiple vineyards, the winery plant and cellar door retail sales outlet – is on the market.

The assets are run under the Crossroads brand – owned by Yealands Estate Wines. The Crossroad’s vineyard and operations being sold encompass three separate vineyards in the bay, along with a winery capable of pressing more than 700 tonnes of grapes and storing the resulting juice in 59 tanks, and a cellar door retail premises which attracts more than 5000 visitors annually. The Crossroads brand, business and existing stock in bottles, barrels, and tanks, are not part of the sale. Yealands Estate Wines is selling the Hawke’s Bay vineyards, winery buildings, and plant to consolidate winemaking operations at its Marlborough winery. Existing grape growing contracts with Hawke’s Bay producers will continue, with the grapes being transported to Marlborough. Initially established in Hastings as a privately-owned boutique operation in 1987, with the Fernhill-based winery, offices, barrel hall, tank farm, Spanish-style public tasting facility, and offices added over the subsequent years. Yealands Estate Wines Limited acquired Crossroads in 2011. Three vineyard blocks within Hawke’s Bay are for sale:

• The 10.98 hectare Home Block vineyard in Korokipo Road, Hastings

• The 59.1 hectare Kereru vineyard in Kereru Road, Maraekakaho, Hastings and

• The 11.83 hectare Gimblett Gravels

vineyard on Omahu and Mere Roads. The plantings are a member of the Gimblett Gravels Winegrowers Association whose membership is exclusively confined to vineyards within the 800 hectare Gimblett Gravels Appellation of Hawke’s Bay. The three individual generally rectangular-shaped blocks are planted in a configuration of grape varieties – featuring pinot gris, chardonnay, gewürztraminer, sauvignon blanc and merlot, while the Gimblett Gravels title in separate blocks produces syrah, cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay varietals. All of the blocks are well-served by established infrastructure services including water-pumping stations, equipment and machinery storage sheds, fencing, and three-phase power connections – and have multiple water extraction and waste discharge permits. All three vineyards are fully accredited under the Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand programme. Some 14 hectares of the Kereru Road block is unplanted and currently leased for cattle wintering activities – allowing for expansion of grape growing land use. Bayleys Hawke’s Bay viticulture manager Glyn Rees-Jones is marketing this venture through a tender process closing on September 29. Mr Rees-Jones says that while Yealands Estate Wines Limited prefers to sell the entire asset catalogue as one unit, the vendor will entertain selling the blocks individually – thereby creating multiple sales permutations. The concrete and steel frame Crossroads winery, administration hub, and cellar door venue are housed within a 716 square metre complex built in 1991 and substantially renovated and modernised in 2009. Within the complex is an ambient temperature barrel hall capable of housing 400 barrels, a five metre stud main cellar area with fermenting tanks, a 120 barrel refrigerated cool store, offices and staffroom amenities, a laboratory, pressing and filtration units, and tank farm. View on line at www.bayleys.co.nz #2800459 For more information, contact Glyn Rees-Jones at Bayleys on 06 834 2286, 027 496 3020 or email glyn.rees-jones@bayleys.co.nz