Customer list, website and 70,000 bottles of wine up for grabs, after Victorian wine brands enter liquidation

The customer list and website of a well-established winemaking and retail business are up for grabs, after two related companies were placed in liquidation earlier this year.

The Moondarra winemaking business was established in 1991 with the production of pinot noir in Gippsland in regional Victoria. The business later added a vineyard in the King Valley to the operations, which produced pinot gris and pinot noir wine varieties.

Among the business’s recognised wine brands are Moondarra and Holly’s Garden.

The business was operated under two companies, Moondarah Projects Pty Ltd and Winose Pty Ltd, which both entered liquidation on May 18 and are now under the management of Matthew Jess and Nathan Deppeler of Worrells Solvency and Forensic Accountants.

The liquidators have commenced a sale campaign, with an advertisement in the Australian Financial Review late last week stating the business’s intellectual property, including its trademarks, website and customer list, are for sale.

The ad, from Slattery Auctions and Valuations, also listed volumes of wine for sale, including approximately 25,000 bottles of labelled wine; approximately 45,000 bottles of incomplete or unlabelled wine; and approximately 35,000 litres of bulk wine stored in barrels and tanks.

Slattery Auctions is also calling for expressions of interest in the business’s plant and equipment, although the sale of those assets would be subject to existing finance arrangements.

Paul Burness, managing partner of Worrells in Victoria, told SmartCompany the business has continued to trade since liquidators were appointed so as to sell through existing inventories.

While Burness says the factors leading up to the companies being placed into liquidation are not clear at this point in time, the companies were “certainly insolvent”.

Burness says he expects there to be interest from the market in the available assets, however the liquidators are still in the early stages of the expression of interest campaign.

SmartCompany attempted to contact the business but did not receive a response prior to publication.