Californian winery Renwood is the latest multi-million dollar acquisition for oil and gas magnate Alejandro Bulgheroni as he expands his wine business beyond South America.
Bulgheroni’s company RAI has paid $6.95 million for the bankrupt Renwood Winery, having already purchased a 25-million litre capacity winery in Mendoza earlier this year.
Alejandro Bulgheroni told decanter.com he had already spent in excess of US$20m in the wine business. His company owns Bodega Garcon in Uruguay, a Torrontes vineyard in Cafayate, and part-owns Carlos Pulenta’s Mendoza winery Vistalba.
He plans to continue producing Zinfandel at the Amador County producer Renwood. Its current winemaker will remain with the team with Pulenta as consultant.
‘We are trying to develop a wine business and we will concentrate on trying to make special wines of each area so Malbec in Mendoza, Torrontes in Cafayate and Zinfandel in California.’
There is also another wine project planned in Patagonia’s Chubut province. ‘It will be the southernmost vineyard in the world,’ he claimed. ‘We are going to start with six hectares of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and build a winery there too.’
Expansion could continue with Bulgheroni revealing he would like to own ‘six wineries and a few 100 ha of vineyards’ in total.
Written by David Furer, and Rebecca Gibb
