A tale of two wineries as Accolade offloads Adelaide Hills and Krondorf sites

It’s the best of times at Petaluma. Less so at Krondorf. And both wineries - but not the associated brands - are about to hit the market.

Petaluma’s cellar door is looking for a new home.

Accolade Wines is selling the Petaluma and Krondorf wineries and moving production to other sites.

Australia’s largest wine company said the Petaluma and Croser brands had outgrown the capacity of their Woodside home, where the brands were first conceived in the 1970s by industry stalwart Brian Croser.

At the Krondorf winery in the Barossa Valley, where Grant Burge sparkling is currently made, Accolade has assessed that it does not have sufficient white wine grapes sourced from the Barossa to justify keeping it open.

Petaluma’s Woodside cellar door has a magnificent view.

Production of Petaluma and Croser will move to Accolade’s Hardys Tintara Winery in McLaren Vale - the company’s “spiritual home” - and Grant Burge will be made at Tintara and St Hallett.

Accolade will retain its vineyards in Summertown and Mount Barker.

The company will sell both wineries, and said it was looking at new locations for the Petaluma cellar door.

“We recently conducted a thorough assessment of our wine footprint to understand the capacity to support the growth of our wine brands and to ensure that each site can run sustainably. As a result, we have made two decisions regarding our sites,’’ Accolade chief executive Robert Foye said.

Winemaker Brian Croser in his Petaluma vineyard in the Piccadilly Valley in 1985.

“In response to the increasing global demand for Petaluma and Croser, these brands have reached capacity at Woodside Estate and outgrown the site. Therefore, we have made the decision to sell this facility and transfer all winemaking of the Petaluma and Croser portfolio to the spiritual home of Accolade Wines and our state-of-the-art facility at Tintara.

“We are investigating new locations for the Petaluma Cellar Door to reach even more Petaluma fans and provide new and interesting experiences for wine and food lovers. In the meantime, we will keep trading in the current location until the sale is completed.’’

Mr Foye said the company hoped “that the majority of our employees can be retained by us at one of our Accolade Wines sites or by the new owners’’.

Accolade, which was then rumoured to be considering an ASX listing, picked up Petaluma, Croser, St Hallett and Stonier from Lion in 2016.

The company, owned by The Carlyle Group, bought Katnook Estate in the Coonawarra in September.