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News
Seppeltsfield winery owner snaps up four McLaren Vale vineyards
The owner of one of Australia’s oldest winery, Seppeltsfield Estate in Barossa Valley, has snapped up four vineyards in McLaren Vale, making him the largest vineyard owner in the region.
The winery at Seppeltsfield
Warren Randall, of Seppeltsfield Estate winery and the Randall Wine Group has bought 142ha of vineyards across McLaren Vale, the Australian Financial Review has reported, including the 60ha Sellick Hills estate under his company Tinlins Wines banner.
Tinlins was acquired by Randall Wine Group in 2016.
The move means that Randall is now the largest vineyard owner in McLaren Vale, with around 750ha under vine, as well as the largest vineyard owner in the Barossa, where it has more than 1600ha of vines.
Overall the group controls around 3,200 acres across Australia.
The move follows a series of acquisitions by the group across Australia, with the group acquiring around 760ha of new vineyards this year, in Barossa, Langhorne Creek, McLaren Vale and Currency Creek.
In follows an expansion into the Clare Valley two years ago, with the purchase of the Ryecroft winery and Quelltaler Estate from Treasury Wine Estates , which included around 900 acres of vineyard plus around 40 hectares of vineyards in McLaren Vale.
According the Australian news outlet The Lead , the acquisitions are fuelling Randall’s ambition in China where the company opened a AU$75 million château in China’s Henan province in May 2017 as part of a joint venture with the Minquan Jiuding Wine Company.
Last March Australian wine exports to China passed the AU$1 billion mark (US$777.2 million) – the first time a single country has done so – after exports soared by 51% following an import tariff reduction at the beginning of the year following the signing of a Free Trade Agreement.
The value of exports in the 12 months to March 2019 stood at $2.78 billion, according to Wine Australia, with value sales in China (including Hong Kong and Macau) up 7% to $1.11 billion. Australia now has a 29% share of the imported wine market, up from 26% last year.