Canadian wine group Vincor International is looking to extend its business into Australia. The move would mark the company's first foray outside its home country and North America.
Vincor is Canada’s largest wine company. It sells around 70 million bottles of wine annually and is best known for its ownership of major Canadian icewine producer Inniskillin.
The company is reported to be interested in Australia’s Margaret River region, where it intends to link up with one of the big-name producers of the thriving Western Australia appellation. Xanadu, Evans & Tate and Goundrey are rumoured to be prime targets.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Vincor has
made scouting trips to Australia over the last two years, and could be ready to make a purchase within the next 12 months.
‘They’ve spoken with at least a dozen companies in Australia, and are looking for the company that’s the right fit for them,’ a source revealed to the newspaper.
An Australian producer would be an important addition for Vincor, and would signal a more global outlook for the company – it currently has only Canadian and North American wineries in its portfolio.
In August last year, Vincor snapped up Washington State’s Hogue Cellars for US$36.4m (£26m). It also owns Niagara’s Jackson-Triggs, plus a string of other wineries in British Columbia, Quebec, Ontario and News Brunswick.
Two years ago, the company teamed up with Burgundy producer Jean-Charles Boisset to make Burgundian style Pinot Noir and Chardonnay on Canadian soil.
Written by Tom Chippendale in Sydney19 September 2002
