Sydney hospitality pioneer’s empire facing crippling debt and angry creditors

It’s not the first time high-profile Sydney hospitality pioneer and Rodney Adler’s former business associate Stan Sarris and magazine editor wife Judy have had their backs to the wall in business.

But this time their fledgling Gourmet Traveller Wine magazine empire is hanging by a thread, facing crippling debt of more than a million dollars and a growing list of unhappy creditors.

Stan and Judy Sarris at a social event in 2019.Credit: Estaban La Tessa

Even their most loyal supporters are wondering if they will survive this time, though the Sarrises still have the very public support of influential pals: namely the actor and winemaker Sam Neill, though he has no financial involvement in the business.

On Monday creditors of Sarris’ GT Wine Magazine Pty Ltd – including the Australian Taxation Office, which is owed more than $800,000, along with a who’s who of the Australian wine business – will meet to vote on a proposal Stan Sarris says is the only workable financial solution to pay back any of the money owed.

Cameron Gray and Anthony Elkerton of DW Advisory were appointed administrators in December 2019. In February 2020 creditors accepted a deed of arrangement to be paid 10 cents in the dollar, the terms of which were extended because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Old pals: Sam Neill and Judy Sarris share the love for fine wine.Credit: Instagram

Now Sarris is proposing to start paying the more than $227,000 owing to creditors under the deed in eight monthly instalments of nearly $19,000 each, starting on June 30 and culminating in a final payment of nearly $76,000 on February 28, 2022.

However, the administrators are recommending creditors not support the proposal, arguing it does not provide sufficient funds to make all the payments required. Sarris told PS the proposal would mean the magazine’s staff receive their full entitlements, which for some long-term employees equates to tens of thousands of dollars.

Sarris said the financial problems stemmed from when the company purchased – for nearly $1 million – the 20-year licence to produce the magazine from the previous rights’ holder, former associate and friend, grazier and businessman Peter Howarth.

While their relationship has since soured, Howarth told PS he had been paid in full and no longer had any financial involvement with Sarris or his company.

Last August The Sun-Herald revealed disgruntled chefs had accused Sarris of taking “money from our kids’ mouths” after failing to pay for lavish events his magazine had hosted.

Adelaide’s Africola head chef and co-owner Duncan Welgemoed told all on Facebook, including that he was owed just under $5000 for hosting a GT Wine dinner in October 2019.

“He stiffed me out of a bill and continued to rort restaurants – and restaurants are some of the most fragile businesses in Australia – and he was happy to do it without giving a f--k basically,” Welgemoed said. Africola is listed as a creditor in the administrator’s report.

While other creditors are yet to receive a cent, Sarris confirmed that Africola’s bill had since been settled after an unnamed “supporter” had “stepped in”. Sarris refused to reveal who the supporter was but confirmed an “understanding” that Welgemoed would take down his unflattering social media posts once paid, which he did.

Welgemoed did not return PS’s calls this week.

In recent weeks one of Australia’s most revered wine writers, Huon Hooke, resigned from GT Wine after writing for the masthead for 24 years. In the end Hooke, who also writes for this masthead, would only submit articles to the magazine once his prior invoices were paid.

When asked about Hooke’s resignation, Sarris said GT Wine was focused on “nurturing and supporting new talent”.

Another prominent player in the wine industry, Rob Hirst, chairman of Tucker Seabrook, has also parted company with the magazine, taking the annual Wine List Of The Year Awards to a new media partner, Qantas Magazine, after many years with GT Wine.

Over the past two decades the Sarrises have staved off several previous bankruptcies, only to see the demise of Stan Sarris’ once-glittering venues GPO and Banc, which he developed with Adler nearly two decades ago.

Sarris admitted to PS that “maybe” his bold business visions have been a little too “ambitious” but remained adamant the ideas were sound, he just needed capital to get them going.

“This is a good business, and I am very bullish about our future ... I am also very confident that the creditors will see the merit of my proposal and keep the business alive,” Sarris told PS. “It is an unfortunate situation, but we are working incredibly hard to move forward.”

A Julia Roberts mystery

Check under your bed, behind the sofa or even in the fridge ... in fact look everywhere for any sign of Julia Roberts, who appears to have completely evaded detection in Sydney since reportedly touching down aboard her private jet with family in tow two months ago.

A week after a “worried sick” PS put out a public call for Julia to give us a sign if she is in fact in Australia, little evidence has materialised. It is now six weeks since NSW Police confirmed to The Sun-Herald that “Julia Roberts” had completed quarantine.

PS is beginning to wonder if they were referring to THAT Julia Roberts.

Hollywood power agency CAA, which handles Roberts, was most unhelpful, refusing to furnish this column with any details on the megastar’s whereabouts.

Julia Roberts and husband Danny Moder with their children.Credit: Instagram

Management for pop singer Ed Sheeran, who had reportedly spent quarantine with Roberts and her family on the banks of the Hawkesbury, has since stated that was not the case.

This week one PS mole was adamant Roberts was living in a rented mansion in Mosman, bunking down with another visiting A-lister, Tilda Swinton, who PS can confidently report has been in Sydney filming a new movie with Idris Elba for director George Miller. But Swinton left town a month ago.

Another claimed Julia was a regular at his cafe, but she “clearly wants to be left alone”, though when pushed on details of the cafe’s location, the times of supposed sightings or any other details that might help solve the mystery, he abruptly hung up!

Two sources within the local film industry and involved with a film Roberts is scheduled to shoot opposite George Clooney later in the year are adamant she won’t be here before September.

PS even emailed Roberts’ husband Danny Moder this week, a cinematographer and avid surfer. Unsurprisingly he hasn’t responded. However, he has been posting surf shots recently on Instagram, after many months of nothing. Sadly they are not shots taken from any of our local beaches, but rather California and Hawaii.

End of a Sydney era

They may represent the polar opposites on the social spectrum, but the recent deaths of etiquette queen and former Vogue writer and chief chic correspondent Marion von Adlerstein and the rakish gossip columnist Dorian Wild bring an end to a colourful chapter in Sydney’s media life.

Marion von Adlerstein.Credit: Steven Siewert

She was the girl from the western suburbs who ended up a baroness, not that she would ever be so “vulgar” as to use the title around Sydney, while he was the boy from the mean streets of London who re-created himself as the gossip king of Sydney, and made countless enemies along the way.

“MVA”, who started her career in the Mad Men world of advertising agencies in the swinging ’60s, died on April 22 aged 88, having lived a life devoted to beauty, travel, art and good champagne.

She wrote The Penguin Book of Etiquette, in which she advised on everything from how one should reply to an invitation, behave at a Hindu wedding, and select an appropriate anniversary gift to eating tricky foods like artichokes.

Almost always dressed in her trademark Issey Miyake “Pleats Please” white shirts, black cigarette pants and ballerina flats, her shock of silvery white hair and air of serenity were a constant across Sydney and the world for decades.

Dorian Wild was Sydney’s undisputed gossip king of the 1980s.Credit: Sydney Morning Herald

At her request she was cremated without any ceremony in Sydney with instructions for her ashes to be scattered into the canals of Venice, which she long considered her spiritual home.

A celebration of the life of Dorian Wild was held at the Cruising Yacht Club in Darling Point in March.

Wild lost his battle with cancer in February. He was 75.

His crestfallen wife Lesley, the former publisher of Vogue, told PS he had deliberately kept his illness quiet: “You know him, he was like the bloody secret service.”

Throughout the 1980s Wild was the most feared society columnist in the country, having published his purple prose in The Daily Telegraph, The Bulletin and The Sun-Herald, detailing every philandering spouse and socialite scandal of the day.

Years later he lamented on the ABC’s Australian Story about rival gossip columns that were “much ado about bugger-all”.

Though he remained an avid reader, once calling then editor of The Bulletin David Dale to ask why he had not made it onto the magazine’s 100 Most Appalling People List. Dale responded he had become “too trivial”.

Start your day informed

Our Morning Edition newsletter is a curated guide to the most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.