Lindemans and Wolf Blass sail off into the sunset

[phillisc]

News today in Adelaide's In Daily and Drinkstrade that TWE have offloaded Lindies and Wolf Blass from their portfolio:

[url]https://www.drinkstrade.com.au/twe-to-divest ... 90-million[/url]

Always felt that Lindies was a dead man walking, winemaker jettisoned last year, appears there's no 2022 releases.
Wonder if the vineyards are for sale...unlikely.
Another billion bottles of 407 bullshit or increased Wynns BL production.
Hopefully another fire sale, and that the trio is flogged at $30-35...I will be getting more.

As for WB, TWE have been flogging this off in droves, GL and BL at less than half street price. See this purely as a changing the label exercise, as the bulk of TWE products are bottled at WB at Nuri, so the same volumes will be coming through, just a different name.

I will dig out my lone bottle of 1999 Lindies Nursery reisling and raise a final glass to a once great label.
Cheers Craig

[VinoEd]

Sad days but not unexpected.

Agree - hopefully means an opportunity to get some heavily discounted wine.

Be interesting to learn what’s going to happen with the grapes.

Cheers Ed

[Ian S]

Lindemans has certainly been a basket case of brand mismanagement for a very long time. A shame as there used to be stars in both S.Aus and Hunter labels, but the brand was kicked around by an ownership who never really worked out what they wanted it to be. I guess the peril of a company trying to cover very different price points and regions (and for me the death knell - different countries).

Wolf Blass at least had a clearer identity, but one that perhaps got messed up by adding more label colours than a Dulux paint chart. The coloured label concept did seem successful back in the 1990s, as an easy way to drive brand recognition, and the workhorse yellow label sold very well indeed.

[Chuck]

So they aren't selling the vineyards in the deal? As usual buyer will likely use inferior grapes and winemaking, sell cheap and trash the labels even more. This was done with Yalumba Galway Pipe which used to be a quality fortified. Older bottles can still be bought at auction for silly prices. I loaded up years ago at around $12 pb. Really lovely stuff. Last bottle remaining is so old it's labelled in pints and fluid ounces. So it's likely from 60s or 70s I think. A bit of a lucky dip.

[phillisc]

Yes have had plenty of those old Yalumba's...they made a heap of them too, 4 crown, clock tower, directors special and GP.

Lindies Nyrang Hermitage, KS red stripe, Wynns Heritage, (only one still going), Tollana TR222, Seaview MV, Rouge Homme...alas.

Cheers Craig

[Sean]

deleted

[phillisc]

Seppelt.. although apart from CH which I have never rated, TWE doesn't have much of a foothold in Victoria, so will be kept...but could be next.
Apparently Gallo Bros wanted to buy Seppelts and Wynns but Southcorp said no deal.
Methinks Tim Ford is attempting to claim that Pennies is the greatest winery in the world (cough) and is looking for a massive bonus and or exit.
Cheers Craig

[felixp21]

sad to see Lindemann's go.
They had such classic Hunter wines.
I'd say that in my many decades of drinking wine from all over the World, Lindemann's Nyrang Hermitage from multiple vintages in the 60's was my greatest ever wine.
No, not the best wine, but a truly fabulous and never-to-be repeated wine at an utterly absurd price. At Uni in the late 70's/early 80's, I was getting back vintages of Nyrang, such as the 66 and 67, for the grand total of $40 A DOZEN.
I drank my last bottle of 67 Nyrang when it was 50 years old, and it was still at peak and amazing.

[mjs]

Absolute cluster**** imo. There's something more sinister about all of this, and it's the decline of the range of really excellent diverse wine offerings in Australia. How the f*** can one get excited about Squealing Pig and 19Crimes as leaders in the Australian wine industry? WTF are they thinking? The search for the almighty dollar is killing the Australian wine industry. I'm beyond ticked off, I used to enjoy the TWE wine nights in Melbourne, with the range of wines on offering, buggered if I'm going to get excited about anything like that again. There's no stewardship thinking in any of this, it's just about dollars. Pisses me off, why am I bothering to be a shareholder?. Almost glad Brett Sharpe got out of Lindemans when he did.

[phillisc]

Beautifully said Malcolm....it was only Lindies, Seppelts and Wynns that have piqued my interest. After the 2021/22 vintage will probably be zero.
Cheers Craig

[Ian S]

"Sail off into the sunset"?

More like "Scuttled off Scapa Flow"

[Sean]

deleted

[phillisc]

"Sail off into the sunset"?

More like "Scuttled off Scapa Flow"

Ian, I guess you are right, shoved over Niagara like Blondin in a barrel.
More that Lindies didn't deserve a send off such as this.
I'm waiting on a price, then a few more 2021s will make their way to the cellar. Wonderful wines, have a few bottles from the 80s and 90s and more over the last 25 years.
Cheers Craig

[Ian S]

Yes, we're all in agreement re: the lack of respect, even understanding, of Lindies' place in the history of Aussie wine.

[Chuck]

I remember this game of Pacman started seriously when Rosemount did a reverse takeover of Southcorp. This was when Rosemount was at its peak with buttery over ripe Hunter chardonnays etc. Bob Oatley and his men moved in and sacked most of the Southcorp salesmen and management. Then it all went downhill. They tried to sell wine like beer and trashed everything. If my memory serves me Bob was forced to sack the CEO of Southcorp. It was his son-in-law Sandy Roberts I think. Sandy really f****ed it up big time. What a d**k. That was an awesome day with ex Penfolds staff cheering from the bleaches. A lot of good labels trashed in the process to date. Thanks for this detailed list above. Some history lost here.

[Chuck]

I remember this game of Pacman started seriously when Rosemount did a reverse takeover of Southcorp. This was when Rosemount was at its peak with buttery over ripe Hunter chardonnays etc. Bob Oatley and his men moved in and sacked most of the Southcorp salesmen and management. Then it all went downhill. They tried to sell wine like beer and trashed everything. If my memory serves me Bob was forced to sack the CEO of Southcorp. It was his son-in-law Sandy Roberts I think. Sandy really f****ed it up big time. What a d**k. That was an awesome day with ex Penfolds staff cheering from the bleaches. A lot of good labels trashed in the process to date. Thanks for this detailed list above. Some history lost here.

Correction. Son-in-law was Keith Lambert. Sandy was his son. As Southcorp, amid yet another wine glut, started going pear-shaped after the takeover Bob sold his huge shareholding (20%) to Fosters and convinced them to make a full takeover offer. The rest is history.

[kenzo]

[url]https://wbmonline.com.au/no-fairytale-finish ... OiaF4SIT4w[/url]

[JamieAdelaide]

I’m in Hong King fit 24 hours so went to grab some wine to take to Alaska for the week. Black Label $38 Aussie for the 2014 and $95 for two of the 2017. Will grab a few to have with snow crab.

[phillisc]

Wolf Blass Black Label for $38...great work. But there in lies the problem...treasury continues to screw the domestic punter.
I paid $50 for the 2018 or the 16 a few months ago.
Will be bucket's of this hitting the secondary market in the month's to come.
Cheers Craig