Another Central Otago vineyard has been taken over by overseas interests.
Hong Kong investors have bought the 170ha Claim 431 Vineyard at Bendigo between Cromwell and Tarras.
QWIL Investments (NZ) Pty Ltd was given Overseas Investment Office (OIO) approval in March to buy the freehold of 170ha of land as part of a 596ha purchase of five vineyards in the South Island.
Accolade Wines New Zealand Ltd, with overseas shareholders, was given approval to lease the land.
Last month Cloudy Bay, which is ultimately owned by the international luxury goods group Moët Hennessy-Louis Vuitton Group, announced its intention to buy the 23ha Northburn Station vineyard at Cromwell.
The purchase is still conditional on OIO approval.
The Claim 431 Vineyard has been producing pinot noir wine for the Mud House and Waipara Hills wine brands. It was owned by the Mud House Wine group through its company NZVE.
The manager of the property, Duncan Cramp, and his wife Janie have spent the past 10 years developing 80ha of vineyard on the Bendigo property.
Mr Cramp said the remaining 90ha had the potential to be planted in vines.
''If they want to throw some more money in, then there is land that can be developed.''
However, Accolade general manager in New Zealand Michael-John (MJ) Loza said there were no immediate plans to expand.
The Overseas Investment Office decision summary shows QWIL's five-property purchase, along with the leasehold interest acquired by Accolade, was valued at $46,400,000.
The decision shows QWIL is owned by Gold Rainbow International Ltd (45.31%), Trueway International Ltd (22.05%), Triluck Assets Ltd (7.45%), Hong Kong Public (25.1843%) all of Hong Kong and ''various overseas persons'' (0.0057%).
Accolade Wines has shareholders from the United States (38%), Australia (19%), Netherlands (8%), China (8%) and ''various'' (27%).
Central Otago Winegrowers Association president James Dicey said yesterday the region already had 1750ha of grapes but further development of the Claim 341 land would be good. Mr Dicey said the Cramps had done ''an extremely good job'' developing the property and he hoped the vineyard would continue to produce good quality wine and ''Central Otago'' would continue to be used on the label.
Mrs Cramp said yesterday she and her husband came to Bendigo after their Zimbabwe farm was taken from them.
They plan to move to Marlborough to be closer to family.
