Nobilo Estate goes into receivership after shareholder pulls the plug
A vast "wine lake" of 100,000 litres of Gewürztraminer is currently waiting to be sold at Vinoptima Estate near Gisborne, which has gone into receivership.
The well known winemaker Nick Nobilo, who founded the nine hectare estate in 2000 said this week 100,000l of Gewürztraminer had been accumulated from the vines, the equivalent of 133,000 750ml bottles which the winery advertises for $75 a bottle, meaning the value of the wine could amount to more than $9m.
However, in reality the wine may only fetch $3.50/litre to $4.50/litre when it is sold at auction on December 4th, yielding as little as $350,000, well short of the $9m it could be worth if it was bottled and exported if the vineyard had carried on operating and was not in receivership and all its assets up for sale according to Kevin Courtney, a vintner of Marlborough’s Riverby Estate.
He added that the wine was very much a niche product, and that at $75 a bottle the pool of potential buyers was limited, so the wine had probably been earmarked for the export market.
"That's a large amount of wine to have stored given it's a premium product but with a very niche market here," he said. Many New Zealanders would only be prepared to pay around $20/bottle for Gewürztraminer, he said.
The boutique vineyard is now in the hands of receivers after an unnamed shareholder pulled the plug in August, tipping the business into receivership, according to the Gisborne Herald. They are now in discussions to sell the wine and hope to get a top price. The vineyard produced around 40,000 bottles annually between its first vintage in 2004 and 2015.