Cloudy Bay deal on despite ads

The deal between Northburn Station vineyard and Cloudy Bay Vineyards is still ''on'' despite the property near Cromwell being advertised for sale.

The potential sale of the 23ha vineyard and The Shed cellar door and function centre to Cloudy Bay was announced last week and is subject to Overseas Investment Office (OIO) approval.

Cloudy Bay was established in 1985 by Cape Mentelle Vineyards, Western Australia and is part of Estates & Wines, the Moet Hennessy Wine Division.

However, the vineyard has to be offered for sale on the open market, to give New Zealanders a chance to buy the property, before any deal involving an overseas investor can proceed to the next stage, Northburn owner Tom Pinckney said.

That, he emphasised, was why the property was being advertised.

The 13,000ha Northburn Station is not part of the deal and in the meantime it was ''business as usual'' with Mr Pinckney and his wife Jan continuing to run the vineyard and The Shed.

Mr Pinckney was confident the deal would receive OIO approval as Cloudy Bay had been operating successfully in New Zealand ''for quite some time,'' based in Marlborough.

 

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