The Randall Wine Group acquires Gemtree to boost organic clout

One of Australia’s biggest private vineyard owners has today acquired the Gemtree wine brand, making it a significant player in organics.

The Randall Wine Group, Australia’s largest private luxury vineyard holder, has acquired the Gemtree organic wine brand in what chairman Warren Randall calls “the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle” in propelling his business onto the organic wine stage.

Gemtree is the largest, premium organically-certified winery in Australia, and currently exports its wines to markets including Canada, the US, Hong Kong, Denmark, Singapore, New Zealand and Sweden – which, according to a press release, recently placed an order for 300,000 bottles of Gemtree organic Shiraz.

The Gemtree acquisition is The Randall Wine Group’s second purchase in the McLaren Vale this year.

Earlier this year, it acquired the boutique Hiltop organic vineyard in the McLaren Vale; the biggest single, 100% organic vineyard in a premium region in Australia, for AU$5.7 million.

The 80ha Hiltop property is planted with mostly Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon.

With the combined organic wine output of both McClaren Vale estates, plus existing wine businesses, The Randall Wine Group looks to become a major player in the organic wine category.

It also owns the Seppeltsfield Estate in the Barossa Valley and Penny’s Hill Estate in McLaren Vale, with total vineyard holdings spanning more than 9000 acres across eight premium regions across South Australia.

“Gemtree is such an exciting brand to add to our stable of thoroughbreds,” said executive chairman and owner Warren Randall.

“Organic wine production presents a big opportunity. Organic wine sales are on the march, by 2.5 fold internationally and 15 fold domestically in the last
10 years, while non-organic wine sales declined”.

“Australia possesses natural climatic attributes that are conducive to the crafting of organic wine in both the vineyard and the winery. Our hot and dry
Mediterranean climate in McLaren Vale is entirely suited to world class organic and biodynamic wines, and yet we are the 11th in the world in terms of
organic vineyard area with only 1% of the world’s organic vineyards”.

Randall believes there is  “a significant opportunity for Australian wine to penetrate the biggest organic wine markets in the world”.