Accolade Wines Acquires Grant Burge Wines

02 Feb 2015 --- Leading New World wine company, Accolade Wines has acquired the Barossa’s award winning Grant Burge Wines including the iconic Grant Burge brand, Burge and Rathbone Fine Wine Merchants business and the historic Krondorf Winery.

Accolade Wines’, General Manager Asia Pacific, Michael East, said the company had been seeking a base in the Barossa for some time and had approached Burge on that basis.

"We have a major, historical presence in McLaren Vale through Hardys, in WA through Houghton, in Margaret River through Brookland Valley, in the Clare Valley through Leasingham and Tasmania via Bay of Fires. Grant Burge and the Barossa were a natural next step.

“Our business has cemented its position as the leading supplier of New World wines in recent years, building on its Australian, Californian and South African portfolio through the acquisition of brands in key appellations such as Sonoma County, through Geyser Peak, and Napa Valley through Atlas Peak in 2012, and in 2014 included premium New Zealand regions through the acquisition of Mud House and Waipara Hills.”

"Grant Burge Wines has five generations of Barossa pedigree and has consistently delivered wines of the highest calibre in a number of different categories, including sparkling, premium white and red wines and fortified wines. The Meshach Shiraz holds an outstanding classification from Langtons and the Grant Burge Sparkling Pinot Noir Chardonnay NV remains one of the most popular Australian premium sparkling wines.

“In addition, the Grant Burge Wines 20 Year Old Tawny has been awarded 22 trophies, including four, best fortified wine, at the prestigious Decanter World Wine Awards while the famous Filsell Old Vine Shiraz took out the Winestate World’s Best Shiraz in 2013.

“As we have done with the other brands, we see this as an opportunity to grow the brand even further globally through our distribution network across 112 countries,” Mr. East said.

Mr. East said Grant Burge would play a crucial role as brand ambassador and continue to supply premium Barossa Valley fruit to the business.

Grant and Helen Burge, who founded Grant Burge Wines in 1988, said this was a new phase in their lives with Accolade Wines ensuring the Grant Burge Wines portfolio was promoted strongly internationally as well as domestically. “We have a really strong business domestically, but we know Accolade Wines wants to also grow the business internationally, and they have the platform to do that. They know that the Barossa is one of the best Australian wine regions and we are amongst the best known Barossa brands,” the couple said.

“We’d really like to thank our staff for their commitment and passion for the Grant Burge brand over the years. Those factors as well as the quality in the bottle have made Grant Burge into what it is today,” they said.

“We will be working closely with Accolade Wines to ensure that the transition is as seamless as possible for our people and our customers.”

The companies announced in December that they had reached a conditional agreement to purchase with settlement in January.