Receivers to sell vineyard

The vineyard of failed Marlborough wine company Gravitas is on the market in an effort to pay back more than $4.5 million in debts.

The Wairau Valley vineyard was put into receivership in June and has been trading under management by receivers David Ruscoe and Ian Simpson of Grant Thornton New Zealand.

The vineyard was listed with Bayleys Marlborough last week. The receiver's report released yesterday said the receivers were called in when the boutique wine company defaulted on a $4.4m BNZ loan.

The company also owed $21,000 in tax and $126,000 to unsecured trade creditors.

Almost $1m owed to Gravitas had been written off as bad debts by the receivers.

The receivers had sold some pinot noir in bulk, but Mr Ruscoe said the amount and the return from the sale was commercially sensitive.

Whether unsecured creditors got their money back depended on the sale of the vineyard and assets, he said.

Gravitas director Martyn Nicholls bought the land and established the vineyard in 1996. Mr Nicholls and his late partner, Debbie Argus, were badly injured during a three-wheeler motorbike crash in January 2009.

Ms Argus was diagnosed with cancer afterwards and died about a year ago.

Bayleys sales consultant John Hoare said there had been a good response to the listing, with three parties registering interest.

The 24-hectare vineyard on the corner of State Highway 63 and Lanark Ln has 19 hectares planted in sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, pinot noir and riesling vines. It also has class A water rights until 2025.

There is a three-bedroom house and a two-bedroom cottage on the property.

The buyer of the vineyard will have first option to buy the plant, machinery, wine stocks and Gravitas brand which will be sold separately to the vineyard.

The vineyard will be auctioned on September 24 if it is not sold before. The auction will be held at Bayleys Marlborough in Blenheim.

The value of wine-growing land depends on many factors, but broadly speaking such land in Marlborough has dropped in value from about $250,000 for a planted hectare to an estimated $150,000. It is understood that the small number of vineyard land sales in Marlborough in the past year makes it even more difficult to put a ballmark figure on such land.