The assets of Accolade Wines and the Australian, New Zealand and Spanish wine businesses formerly owned by Pernod Ricard have been transformed into a new global wine company called Vinarchy.

The corporate name Vinarchy combines Vin (the French word for wine), with Archy (from the Ancient Greek word for leadership).

Australian Wine Holdco Limited (AWL) – a consortium of international institutional investors – has confirmed the Board is also in the advanced stages of selecting a Chief Executive Officer and expects to formalise an appointment shortly.

Vinarchy is led by Executive Chairman Ben Clarke (pictured main), who held a similar role at Accolade Wines since September 2024.

Vinarchy is one of the world’s largest specialist wine companies, with more than $1.5 billion in annual net sales revenue. The business is focused on wine, comprises a multitude of leading wine brands, operates across multiple countries with distribution around the world, and employs more than 1600 people globally.

Clarke said Vinarchy would be focusing more on the trend towards premiumisation and less on producing private label wine. 

He told the Australian Financial Review Vinarchy had about 150 brands in the portfolio, which would be reduced to about 100 so that more resources could be invested into brands including Hardys, Jacob’s Creek and Campo Viejo.

“Brands being cut in the first phase included Beaumont, &Then and Brooke James in Australia, and Trackers Crossing in the United States,” the AFR reported.

“The brands to be wound up represent about 4 per cent of overall revenues. Dozens of brands to be cut are private label brands that the company makes for supermarkets and liquor retailers around the world.”

Clarke told The Australian: “Our three biggest brands are Hardys, Jacob’s Creek and Campo Viejo in Spain, and those three brands alone generate over $2bn of consumer sales every year. Our focus is going to be very much on accelerating the growth of those brands globally.

“Inevitably we will prune some of the portfolio to make sure that we can focus the majority of our resources on those advantage brands. The impact on revenue, in this early phase of pruning is less than 5 per cent so it’s quite small.

“What we want to do is confirm the growth plans for the advantage brands before we confirm what we’re going to do with the rest.”

Vinarchy has 11 wineries in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Spain, producing more than 32 million 9LE cases annually, and owns Berri Estates, the largest winery in the Southern Hemisphere.

Vinarchy brands include the three global pillars of Hardys – the number two Australian wine brand globally, Campo Viejo – the number one Rioja wine brand in the world, and Jacob’s Creek – in the top 10 most valuable wine brands in the world, which between them had annual consumer sales of more than AU$2 billion in 2024.

Alongside these brands, Vinarchy holds the number one market position in New Zealand with Stoneleigh, Brancott Estate, and Mud House.

The Vinarchy portfolio also includes fast-growing Australian brands Grant Burge, Jam Shed, and Petaluma and a range of fine wines from all regions including St Hugo, St Hallett, Orlando, Church Rd, Ysios, and Tarsus.

Clarke said: “We believe Vinarchy can lead the future of the wine category. We will be a dedicated wine company, with scale, capability, reach, resources, talent, and an exceptional portfolio of leading brands. We want to redefine wine.

“The global wine industry faces serious structural challenges. Global wine consumption has been declining for years, driven by changing consumer preferences and a shift to lower-alcohol drinks. Vinarchy will be bold and imaginative in meeting these challenges. With our enhanced scale, brand investment program, innovation capability and industry-leading talent, we believe can meet many of the challenges that the industry faces.

“I’m excited to be joined at Vinarchy by more than 1600 colleagues around the globe. We will be an agile, high-performance organisation.”

AWL said Vinarchy had been built from two well-established businesses and was backed by owners who have committed significant funds to the success and long-term prosperity of Vinarchy.

‘The creation of Vinarchy is the result of detailed transition planning by AWL since July 2024, which aims for a smooth combination of assets,” the company said.

“The combined entities of Vinarchy are highly complementary, with limited overlap. In areas where there is duplication, management has been careful to plan for an orderly combination with a focus on creating a sustainable global business for the long term.”

The company added that it expected customers and distributors will have minimal disruption. Pernod Ricard will continue to distribute the former Pernod Ricard Winemakers portfolio under transitional distribution agreements for a period of time to support a smooth transition.

Accolade Wines employees will transition to the new business from their current roles, with a significant majority of Pernod Ricard Winemakers employees also joining Vinarchy.