Accolade Wines offloads House of Arras to help cut debt

afr.com:

Accolade Wines has sold its House of Arras sparkling wines brand and vineyards, and the Bay of Fires winery and cellar door in Tasmania, to boutique player Handpicked Wines for an undisclosed price.

Accolade, owned by The Carlyle Group, has been battling high debt levels at a time when the commercial wine sector is being hit hard by grape oversupply and cost-of-living pressures.

House of Arras has been sold by private equity-owned Accolade Wines. 

Handpicked Wines was set up by William Dong more than a decade ago and has vineyards in the Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley regions in Victoria, in Tasmania, and in South Australia’s Barossa Valley.

Accolade said in a statement on Wednesday that an agreement had been reached for Handpicked Wines to acquire House of Arras, 24 hectares of vineyards, and the Bay of Fires winery at Pipers River in Tasmania.

But Accolade will retain the Bay of Fires wine brand, under an arrangement where Handpicked Wines will make the wine under contract. Accolade has 50 wine brands including Hardy’s, St Hallett, Petaluma, Banrock Station, Grant Burge and Mud House. It has been owned by Carlyle since 2018.

Accolade chief executive Robert Foye said the House of Arras was a “luxury brand that does not fit neatly” with the rest of its portfolio.

Under the sale, Accolade has entered into a long-term agreement to continue to produce and bottle all House of Arras brands under contract with the new owners.

The grapes will keep being sourced and pressed in Tasmania and the wines will be made at existing Accolade facilities, including Torresans in the Adelaide Hills.

Treasury Wine Estates intends shutting its low-end commercial wine production facility at Karadoc in Victoria in June next year as part