Gimblett Gravels founding winery puts assets up for sale

LEGEND: Pask winery, founded by Chris Pask (pictured) is for sale. PHOTO FILE

The vineyards, winery and business assets of Pask Winery are for sale.

Pask owns just over 58ha of vineyards in the sought-after Gimblett Gravels and a winery on Omahu Rd. The company's wines have consistently enjoyed gold medal and trophy success in the UK, Australia, Asia, USA, Canada and New Zealand across a range of varietals and wine styles.

Mike Laven, rural and agribusiness broker at Colliers International, who is handling the sale with colleague Hadley Brown, said the sale presents "a rare opportunity to purchase very special vineyard holdings and a fully integrated winery business, with a strong reputation for quality".

The sale includes part of the original 40ha block purchased and planted in grapes by Chris Pask in 1981. This was the first vineyard to be planted in the 800ha Gimblett Gravels winegrowing district, said Brown.

"When Pask bought the land 35 years ago, the area was regarded as the poorest, least productive land in Hawke's Bay. It wasn't much good for grazing sheep and little would grow on the gravelly soils. Chris was the first person to see the potential of the area for viticulture."

Today, there is fierce competition to purchase vineyards in this very limited premium wine area. Based on this, the brokers expect strong local and international interest in the assets of this high-profile wine business.

"We will be talking to potential offshore buyers, who will be interested in buying Pask as a going concern due to strong growth in demand for red wines in their markets," said Laven.

"For Hawke's Bay wine companies, this is a rare expansion opportunity in the Gimblett Gravels winegrowing district and those companies can buy individual vineyards or all four."

Pask's four vineyards are planted mainly with red varietals. Merlot, cabernet sauvignon, malbec, syrah and cabernet franc make up about 75 per cent of the planted area, with the balance in white varieties.

The 800 tonne capacity Omahu Rd Winery houses the cellar door tasting facility, offices, laboratory and full winemaking facility through to bottling and warehousing.