Pinot noir grapes at harvest. Photo / Sally Round, RNZ
Pinot noir grapes at harvest. Photo / Sally Round, RNZ
Unpaid tax prompted Inland Revenue to call in liquidators to a Central Otago pinot noir-focused vineyard where an unfortunate combination of factors blighted the business.
The pandemic, trouble getting labour and lost orders beset Lindis River Wines, a vineyard near Cromwell run by Holger Bruno Reinecke and Chantal Josette Degril.
On February 23, IRD had the company declared insolvent and accountants appointed to try to extract the maximum amount of money to pay creditors claiming around $140,000.
IRD went to the High Court at Christchurch to get PwC’s Wendy Somerville and Malcolm Hollis appointed to the vineyard company, incorporated in 2001.
The vineyard at 6 Thomson Gorge Rd stopped trading when the first pandemic lockdown struck in March 2020.
Vineyard is south of Wanaka and east of Lake Hayes. Photo / Google Maps
Somerville and Hollis produced their first report: “We have been advised that the reasons for the company’s insolvency are the loss of significant contracts after Covid-19 which left them only able to sell the stock on hand, together with constraints around available labour to attend to harvest and maintenance of the vines.”
Xero accounting enabled them to view the business transactions but the company didn’t operate a separate bank account. All transactions instead went through the directors’ personal bank accounts, the accountants noted.
“At the date of liquidation, the company owned a small amount of stock of which is currently stored with an agent in Cromwell. We will work with this agent to sell this,” the report said.
It also has farming machinery, tractors, mowers and vineyard mats which will be sold.
The vineyard had no employees at the time of liquidation.
Inland Revenue has filed a claim for outstanding GST, Paye and other employee deductions for $40,000. A further two unsecured creditors are owed around $97,000.
The report said Cromwell’s Central Otago Wine Company, Southland Building Society of Invercargill and Cromwell winemaking, bottling, packaging, warehouse, logistics, storage, dispatch and delivery business VinPro are other creditors.
Advertising from the vineyard showed Lindis River Pinot Noir selling for around $28 to $38, depending on the vintage.
The business says its vineyard is in the Ardgour Valley near Tarras.
“What used to be part of a historic high country merino station was planted with Pinot Noir vines in the year 2000. The vineyard was the first to be established in the Tarras area.
“The Bendigo grape growing subregion is located nearby to the south. As with many mountainous wine-growing locations, the Ardgour Valley also has its own microclimate. Annual rainfall is at the lowest end of the scale for New Zealand, a true continental climate,” Lindis River says.
The sun soaks into the north-to-northwest oriented slopes that reach a 30-degree gradient in the steepest parts.
“While this provides optimal ripening conditions at the end of summer just before harvest, the hillside also ensures cold air drainage in the spring to avert frost damage to the budding vines,” it says.
The vineyard has been managed organically since 2005.
Pinot noir grapes being harvested. More than a third of the entries in this year's Air New Zealand Wine Awards are in the pinot noir class. File photo / Sarah Ivey
All vineyard work is done by hand, including harvesting in April, and 3.5ha of the 22ha property is planted in three different clones of own-rooted Pinot Noir vines.
“The topography of the land allowed us to divide this up into three smaller blocks, thereby again taking advantage of subtle microclimatic conditions. Planting density is high, up to four times higher than average for the region and New Zealand.
“Yet irrigation needs are low, which intensifies flavour development and aids mineral uptake from the ground through deep rooting”, the vineyard says.
Property records show Reinecke and Degril also own the Thomson Gorge Rd property. Southland Building Society has a mortgage over that title.
The Central Otago District Council lists the capital value as $1.4m, of which $890,000 is the land. Rates are $2715/year.
Artisan Cellars described some of the vineyard’s vintages in the early 2000s as “remarkable quality ... the wines just keep getting better.” Its older wines were ageing gracefully, it said.
“An estate to watch. Sadly only a few hundred cases are produced each year.”
When asked about the insolvency last month, director and 90 per cent owner Chantal Degril said she knew nothing about court proceedings and was unaware of any liquidation.
“I had no idea. We have not been notified. How come we have not received anything? This is incredible,” she said.
However, she acknowledged that co-director and 10 per cent owner Holger Bruno Reinecke was “more involved than me in this”.
Reinecke was cited in Herald publicity in 2013 having joined a group of Central Otago artisan vintners: “By the end of the day the only [Artisan Wine] member I hadn’t encountered was Lindis River.
“As is so often the way with one-man bands, the owner of this pinot-focused producer, Holger Reinecke, had to attend to business outside the region the day of my vintage adventures,” Jo Burzynska wrote in Viva.
