Endeavour Group is selling the Chapel Hill winery, cellar door and vineyards, with production moved to Dorrien Estate in the Barossa. The Chapel Hill brand will be retained.
Chapel Hill operations will close at the end of June.
The Riddoch Coonawarra and Krondorf Barossa vineyards will also be sold as Endeavour reduces its own grape production by more than 80 percent.
Endeavour – which owns Dan Murphy’s and BWS – says that it will also “seek a new owner” for the Oakridge brand and winery in the Yarra Valley.
It will be sold as a going concern and the company says it is “business as usual” at Oakridge.
The company won’t be renewing the lease of Josef Chromy in Tasmania.
“Assets associated with the business are under review and a decision will be made before the end of the lease,” the company says.
Endeavour says it is reshaping the Pinnacle Drinks business to an “asset-light, customer-led portfolio”.
“Resulting in approximately 99 percent flexible sourcing of purchased bulk wine and grapes from the viticulture market,” Endeavour says.
Winery operations will be consolidated from seven sites to three, with the remaining three deemed “strategically important for end-to-end regional strength”.
Cape Mentelle in the Margaret River, Isabel Estate in the Marlborough region of New Zealand and Dorrien Estate in the Barossa Valley will be retained as strategically important assets that underpin premium customer propositions, production and sourcing.
A single high-scale packaging facility will be retained at Vinpac Angaston in the Barossa Valley, with the Vinpac McLaren Vale bottling facility to close later this calendar year.
The domestic Pinnacle product range will be further rationalised, sharpening focus on the brands with the strongest retail demand and customer engagement, the company says.
Endeavour Group managing director and CEO Jayne Hrdlicka said, “Todayʼs decisions reflect a clear choice to refocus Pinnacle on its primary role – serving our retail businesses and the customers that drive growth.”
“By concentrating on the brands and assets that customers value most, we are building a more focused private label portfolio.”
A spokesman for Endeavour – which was spun off from Woolworths Group in 2019 – says it will be reducing its own brands by 30 to 40 percent.
Endeavour purchased Krondorf Barossa in 2011, Chapel Hill and Riddoch Coonawarra in 2019, Oakridge Wines in 2021 and Cape Mentelle in 2023.
Endeavour bought Josef Chromy Wines in 2022 in partnership with Warakirri Asset Management, one of Australia’s leading agricultural investment managers.
Adelaide professor Tom Nelson planted the first vines were planted at Chapel Hill in 1972 and the first wines were made in 1975.
The Gerard family took ownership of the winery in 1985 and winemaker Pam Dunsford made some of Australia’s best wines.
In 2022 Dunsford won the Maurice O’Shea Award for her contribution to the Australian wine industry.
• We will provide coverage of this story in our free weekly newsletter The Week That Was – Australia’s most popular wine industry e-bulletin. Sign up now on the homepage.
Subscribe to the beautiful printed edition of WBM – Australia’s Wine Business Magazine here.
Download your free trial of the March-April edition of the magazine here.