Feature | Villa Maria
Investing in wine business growth Villa Maria’s renovated Hawkes Bay cellar door in the Gimblett Gravels.
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ince Sir George Fistonich started Villa Maria in the 1960s it has grown from a one-man operation to one of the country’s largest and most respected wine producers. Over 50 years it has acquired vineyards and brands around New Zealand, built three large wineries and added several new brands and ranges. Now it is setting its sights on becoming one of the world’s great wine companies. To fund that goal it is looking to raise additional capital to invest in its global growth strategy and has started by selling 31ha of vineyard land at its headquarters and winery, now surrounded by suburbs and industrial development in Mangere, Auckland, and the Vidal winery site in Hastings. Another part of this process is restructuring its brand portfolio. Villa Maria wines range from supermarket staples to some of the country’s most iconic such as Ngakirikiri The Gravels or Keltern
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WineNZ Magazine | Spring 2021
Chardonnay, and Single Vineyard and Reserve wines. Villa Maria has also acquired three Hawkes Bay wineries over the years, Vidal, Esk Valley and Te Awa/Leftfield. Recently Villa consolidated all the Hawkes Bay winemaking in a large new winery commissioned for the 2018 vintage, says group chief winemaker Nick Picone. “From those four brands operating independently we now had to operate under one roof sharing resources. A lot of logistics were quite challenging to work though and, to be quite honest, it’s taken us a couple of years to get there,” he said. “It was long overdue that we pause and reflect on where the company’s at and whether it’s still relevant to have all these brands and complexity. Then Covid came and it put more pressure on the need to come out of that leaner, smarter, more focused,” Nick said. The focus is now on the Villa Maria brand which is 85% of the company’s production. The
Nick Picone, chief winemaker at Villa Maria.
other 15% was spread across five different brands which was costly and complex and has been rejigged. The Esk Valley winery in Bayview, north of Napier, has been decommissioned and its winemaking moved to the new winery although the historic open concrete vats that gave such character to its red wines have been replicated.
