Canada’s PSP Investments purchase 35 vineyards from Casella

A giant Canadian super fund has acquired 35 vineyards from Australia’s largest family owned wine company.

Australia’s largest family owned wine company, Casella, have sold 35 of their vineyards to giant Canadian super fund, PSP Investments via their wine subsidiary, Southern Premium Vineyards, in a major deal.

In May this year Casella announced it was offloading 35 properties, or two-thirds of its holdings, across some of Australia’s best wine regions including the Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, Langhorne Creek, Limestone Coast and the Riverina, spanning 7258ha in total.

Southern Premium Vineyards have purchased the 35 vineyards and will take on the management of the vineyards and associated employees.

PSP’s Southern Premium Vineyards, which owned 460ha of vineyards in the Coonawarra and Barossa Valley regions of South Australia prior to the sale, has also entered into a long-term grape supply agreement with Casella.

Casella are planning on reinvesting the proceeds from the sale into Australian and international expansion.

Casella Family Brands managing director John Casella said the deal with Southern Premium Vineyards would ensure their wine grape supply.

Managing director of Casella Family Brands John Casella in one of their wine cellars in Griffith. Picture: Jonathan Ng

“We are confident that Southern Premium Vineyards will continue to deliver the quality and consistency of the grapes we require, safeguard and preserve the vineyards and ensure the wellbeing of employees,” he said in the statement.

PSP Investments senior managing director, real assets and global head of natural resources investment Marc Drouin said the purchase was a cornerstone investment for their global wine portfolio.

“Our commitment to sustainable farming combined with our long-term investment horizon allows PSP Investments to lever Australia’s unique global competitive position for its quality wine grapes,” he said.

PSP Investments natural resources managing director Marc Drouin.

“Casella is a best-in-class group with an impressive portfolio of vineyards in

some of the country’s most highly regarded wine regions.”

The partnership has been approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board. The value of the sale remains undisclosed due to confidentiality arrangements.

PSP Investments has cemented its standing as the largest investor in Australian farmland with their assets soaring to $5 billion during the past year.

In the past six years the pension fund, which manages the superannuation of the nation’s public sector including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, has built a staggering portfolio.

Earlier this year it inked a $60 million-plus deal with goFARM to purchase its 11,260 hectare Yarrabee Park property near Morundah in NSW, which will operate as part of its Daybreak Cropping venture.

They also acquired four farms from the Ace Dairy Holdings’ Gippsland portfolio, which was sold between four buyers for about $70 million.

Casella is Australia’s largest wine exporter by volume with its Yellow Tail brand accounting for about 17 per cent of all Australian exported wine.

Southern Premium Vineyards was established in 2021 and operates by offering wine producers grape supply as an alternative to owning or leasing vineyards.