Constellation's Amberley Estate sale 'atypical'

Drinks giant Constellation insists its retention of the Amberley Estate brand name after selling off the assets does not set a precedent for future divestments.

The multinational corporation has a number of other vineyards on the market but says it will not necessarily keep those brand names after selling off its assets.

A Constellation spokesperson told decanter.com: ‘The Amberley circumstance was atypical in that we had a well established and valued brand that had actually evolved to the point that it drew a relatively small proportion of grapes from the eponymous vineyard.

‘We also had unique circumstances in which the potential buyer’s vision for the vineyard, cellardoor and restaurant involved developing a new identity,’ she added. ‘Hence it was an alignment of interests in a particular case rather than a broader strategy.’

Constellation’s Australian wine division has gone through a period of transition cutting 30 jobs at its Tintara winery in McLaren Vale and 40 more positions at its Reynella site after opening a new bottling plant in Bristol, England.

Written by Rebecca Gibb

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Rebecca Gibb MW is a wine journalist and editor who has also founded Bamboozled games, ‘the world’s first wine and spirit puzzle makers’. Having spent six years living in New Zealand, she has recently returned to her native north-east England. While in New Zealand, she became a Master of Wine, graduating top of her class and winning the Madame Bollinger medal for excellence in tasting. A former winner of both the UK’s young wine writer of the year and the Louis Roederer Emerging Wine Writer, her first book The Wines of New Zealand was published in 2018. She also runs wine events and has her own consultancy business The Drinks Project. She was a judge at the 2019 Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA).