Accolade Wines is restructuring its South Australian operations and putting the two wineries that make the Petaluma and Croser brands and Grant Burge white wine range up for sale.

The wine group recently conducted an assessment of its wine footprint to understand the capacity to support the growth of its wine brands and ensure each site can run sustainably.

“In response to the increasing global demand for Petaluma and Croser, these brands have reached capacity at Woodside Estate and outgrown the site,” CEO Robert Foye said. “Therefore, we have made the decision to sell this facility and transfer all winemaking of the Petaluma and Croser portfolio to the spiritual home of Accolade Wines and our state-of-the-art facility at Tintara.”

“With a long history of Adelaide Hills winemaking, Tintara has a phenomenal barrel cellar, amazing winemakers and a sizeable site that can accommodate all fruit from the Petaluma and Croser vineyards and family of grower vineyards. It will enable us to produce even more quality Petaluma wine that people have come to know and love.

“While we have made the decision to sell these sites, Petaluma, Croser and Grant Burge remain an important part of brand portfolio and we have decided to produce them elsewhere to support their ongoing and planned growth.”

Accolade will retain its Adelaide Hills vineyards in Summertown and Mount Barker and is currently investigating new locations for the Petaluma Cellar Door. In the meantime, it will keep trading in the current location until the sale is completed.

Accolade’s assessment also determined that the company did not have enough white wine grapes that require processing in the Barossa to maximise the capability and size of the Krondorf winery.

“Therefore, we are selling this facility so that a potential buyer can more efficiently leverage the strong white wine making capabilities of this winery,” Foye (above) said. “Our Grant Burge white wine grapes will be processed at our Tintara and St Hallett wineries in vintage 2021 onwards.”

Foye noted that all employees who are potentially impacted by these changes have been informed and the company will continue to support them throughout this transition.

“We hope that the majority of our employees can be retained by us at one of our Accolade Wines sites or by the new owners,” he said.

“I would like to reiterate our commitment to South Australia and our footprint across five wineries, six Cellar Doors, two state of the art facilities and 584 employees. We will continue to invest in the region and have plans in place regarding the opportunities we see in South Australia in the future.”

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