Wine leader issues SA cellar door warning
A blunt warning is being issued to the state’s tourism industry as Australian Vintage offloads an Adelaide Hills vineyard and cellar door to a famous family wine label.
The CEO of one of South Australia’s leading wine businesses has issued a warning to the state’s tourism operators as a cellar door and vineyard change hands for $5 million.
Australian Vintage – the company behind labels like Nepenthe, Passion Pop and McGuigan Wines – today announced it had sold its Nepenthe cellar door site and vineyard to Tomich Wines.
Australian Vintage CEO Tom Dusseldorp said that “it is never easy to close a business, but it was the right time for the next chapter of the Nepenthe brand”.
“As wine tourism continues to decline, loss-making cellar doors do not add the value they once did,” he said.
The Balhanna-based vineyard unveiled a new look for its cellar door in 2023, with sweeping views of the Adelaide Hills.
Tomich Wines is operated by a well-known South Australian winemaking family located in the Adelaide Hills and was founded by Jack Tomich Senior in 1936.
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Australian Vintage will keep full ownership of the Nepenthe brand and has also signed a grape supply contract with Tomich Wines for the 2027 vintage.
But the deal signals continued pressure on the SA wine industry, which recently won a support from the state government through a $109 million wine industry support package.
This package includes a $100 million loan scheme to give businesses money to tear up vines and transition land to new uses.
The sale of the cellar door and vineyard will give Australian Vintage cash to pay down debt, Dusseldorp said.
“We still want to be sourcing great quality wine from the premium Adelaide Hills region for Nepenthe,” he said.
“I want to thank our hard-working team in the Hills that this sale has impacted.”
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Adelaide Hills Wine Region president Alex Trescowthick said the sale was a good outcome for Nepenthe.
“AHWR welcomes the news that a strong, local family-owned brand is investing in the future of one of the iconic cellar door and vineyard sites in the Adelaide Hills,” he said.
“While wine tourism globally is facing some challenges, the business model continues to work well for some brands, especially those with an authentic regional connection, and this is certainly true of Tomich Wines.
“We have every expectation that this purchase will be a very positive step for both Tomich and for the Adelaide Hills region”.
SA Liberal Primary Industries spokesperson Nicola Centofanti told InDaily that the news was “another reminder of just how difficult conditions remain across South Australia’s wine industry”.
“When a significant wine company is publicly talking about declining wine tourism, loss-making cellar doors and selling assets to reduce debt, we should be paying attention,” she said.
“There is a positive in seeing the site remain within the South Australian wine industry through Tomich Wines, and importantly Australian Vintage has indicated it will continue sourcing Adelaide Hills grapes for the Nepenthe brand.
“But governments cannot assume the wine industry has turned the corner. South Australia is Australia’s premier wine state, and governments must ensure the pressures facing the sector don’t translate into a decline in wine tourism, which is so important to our regional economies, jobs and communities.”
The sale is the latest development in the SA wine tourism space, which has been rattled by cellar door and vineyard closures this year as wine businesses recalibrate to manage myriad pressures from a wine grape glut, a shift from red wine demand, and changing consumer preferences.
Wine giant Endeavour Group announced in May that it was selling the famed Chapel Hill’s vineyards and heritage cellar door as part of a business restructure.
The Chapel Hill cellar door closed in June, and the sales process is ongoing with an announcement expected later this year.
Endeavour Group also announced it was selling off vineyards and cellar doors at Riddoch Coonawarra and Krondorf Barossa, as well as a McLaren Vale bottling facility.
The company planned to slash its grape production by more than 80 per cent in a bid to reduce investments in its grape-growing portfolio, it said in a statement.
The news follows dire new data about the latest SA wine grape harvest which, in 2026, was the smallest reported crush since 2000.
The 2026 vintage was 17 per cent below last year’s total tonnes crushed, down more than 100,000 tonnes to 573,252 tonnes.
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