Australia-Vineyards for sale.

AUSTRALIA-VINEYARDS FOR SALE.

A $243 million portfolio of vineyards in Australia and the US is about to hit the market as the Foster’s Group wine divestment plan takes shape.

Most of the 31 Australian operations are in the South Australian wine-growing regions Eden Valley and Coonawarra, according to today’s The Australian Financial Review.

"We built up in pieces - you had the original Mildara Blass, Beringer Blass, then Southcorp, and with each of those came their own vineyard footprint, so in some areas we ended up being very over-represented," a company spokesman said.

"That was particularly in South Australia but also NSW in the Hunter region.

"These are still the Rolls-Royce of vineyards. They are well maintained, very commercially viable.

"There’s no strategic value in Foster’s holding onto these."

Foster’s Group’s badly underperforming $4 billion wine business was the subject of a major review in February that recommended the sale of the vineyards and pre-empted a write-down of at least $130 million in the value of its wineries and labels.

Other vineyards in the Hunter Valley, Mudgee, Yarra Valley and Murray-Darling region will be put up for sale, in addition to US properties.