Vinoptima Estate outside Gisborne. Photo / True Commercial
A Gisborne area boutique winery founded by prominent vintner Nick Nobilo has been sold to a Tuaropaki Kaitiaki business but a wine "lake" was not part of that transaction.
Vinoptima Estate at 138 Ngakoroa Rd, inland from Gisborne, was sold to TK Wines, owned by Tuaropaki, according to the latest report on the failed Nobilo company.
But receivers said a vast 100,000 litres of wine, accumulated by the Nobilo business before it went into receivership, was not included in the winery sale to Tuaropaki, an ahu whenua trust established by the Maori Land Court under the Te Ture Whenua Maori Act (1993).
The six-monthly receiver's report on Vinoptima Estate from BDO's Auckland-based Andrew Bethell and Andrew McKay reported the winery transaction.
Under "property disposed of since date of our previous report", the receivers wrote: "The sale of the winery to TK Wines including fixed assets and stock held onsite was completed. The sale was settled by offset of secured debt and cash."
TK Wines is 100 per cent-owned by Tuaropaki Kaitiaki, the Companies Office shows. Tuaropaki chief executive Stephen Murray of Taupō is a director of TK Wines, along with Nachelle Griffiths.
The company's registered address is at Tuaropaki Trust, 54 Tuwharetoa St, Taupō. Comment has been sought from the trust about buying the vineyard.
The trust was previously a part-owner of the business.
In 2018, Company Office records showed Tuaropaki Kaitiaki, major Gisborne landowner Wi Pere Investments, Nobilo Trustee, DMG Trustees (2006) and Nick Nobilo owned Vinoptima.
Tuaropaki has a wide range of business interests including in geothermal power, pastoral and dairy farming, and communications, having invested in 2degrees' parent NZ Communications in 2007.
In their latest report, the BDO receivers cited the wine lake, which was unsold by the end of August. No update on the sale of that vast quantity of wine has been issued yet.
"There remains a residual balance of wine stock excluded from the completed sale and purchase agreement, which is held at a third-party cool store. We are working with an independent wine sales agent to realise this remaining stock," they said.
No price has been revealed on the land sale and today McKay said he couldn't reveal that either.
The Gisborne District Council records 138 Ngakoroa Rd, Ormond, as being 6ha valued at $680,000 but with $390,000 of buildings amounting to a $1.07 million combined valuation. It incurs rates of $3500 a year.
The neighbouring 144 Ngakoroa Rd is 6.3ha and valued at a total $1.05m.
The Herald has previously reported on the vast "wine lake" of 100,000 litres of gewurztraminer waiting to be sold at a Poverty Bay vineyard that has gone into receivership.
The receivers said in the latest report that the company had other assets as well as the vineyard and wine lake.
Details about those are being kept secret.
"We have omitted certain details concerning our proposal for the disposal of the receivership property as we believe that their inclusion would materially prejudice the exercise of our functions and in particular our duty to obtain the best price reasonably obtainable for the sale of receivership property," Bethell and McKay said.
Nobilo, who in 2000 founded the Vinoptima (Latin for best wines) Estate, said in 2018 when the receivership happened, that the wine was all stored in vats and none was bottled.
People in the area said at the time they had heard of 100,000 bottles being stored on the estate but Nobilo revealed four years ago that it was far more: if decanted into standard 750ml, it could yield more than 133,000 bottles of the premium variety that Vinoptima advertises for $75 a bottle, meaning the "lake" could be worth more than $9m.
In 2018, Nobilo said Vinoptima Estate was only in the hands of receivers "because one of the shareholders called up their advance", which he said was more than $1m.
He refused to identify that shareholder but said it was nothing to do with Nobilo interests.
In 2019, the Herald reported how the vineyard estate remained unsold months after the receivership was called.
McKay said at the time that numbers put forward by would-be buyers were too low so no deals were done.
"The offers for the property were not acceptable at the time the tender closed and subsequent [interest] has not been fantastic," he said three years ago.
The estate is in two blocks: 5.35ha planted in 10,775 vines in 2007 and 5.11ha planted in 10,455 vines in 2000. The 533sq m winery was built in 2003 and has a crushing plant, sterile air-conditioned bottling room, walk-in chiller, storage and a self-contained manager/wine maker's residence, according to marketing at the time.
The first receivers' report showed Vinoptima had debts of around $15m, far short of assets that are listed with a cost value of $9.2m, potentially meaning it will be unable to repay creditors and shareholders.
The business founded by Nobilo as managing director, owed $11.95m to shareholders and those with cross guarantees and a further $3.1m to unsecured creditors, that report said.
"The wine produced has received critical acclaim but sales have been slow, particularly as the previous distributor into China stopped operations despite having entered into a multi-year distribution agreement with Vinoptima," the first receivers' report said.
"The result of poor sales affected trading operations and incurred trading losses. The company was reliant on shareholder support to fund ongoing trading. A proposal for a new Chinese agent was negotiated in June. However there remained a lack of confirmed orders," the first report said.
The latest receivers' report said there was unlikely to be any money left over at the end of the company's affairs to pay any unsecured creditors.
that the wine had accumulated from the vines.
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