Receivers of Anthem Holdings Ltd vineyard in Gibbston are walking away from potentially millions of dollars worth of wine because they believe the matter has become "not worth our while", as questions are raised over the state of the grapes from this season's crop.
Anthem Holdings Ltd was wholly owned by RFD Investments Ltd, a company owned by Christina Buxton and for which the sole director was Dave Henderson, the developer of the troubled Five Mile project in Frankton.
Anthem Holdings was placed in receivership last August by Perpetual Trust.
Since then, receivers have been battling to establish who now owns the wine from that year's harvest - as well as this year's one.
Some of the land was planted in grapes and the wine production agreements were handled by the company, Anthem receiver Paul Sargison, of Gerry Rea Partners, told the Otago Daily Times in November.
On Friday, Mr Sargison said it was not worthwhile for the receivers to continue the fight over who had the right to pick the 2009 grape harvest as "most of the crop would just go to juice anyway".
Previous vintages have won praise - most recently Anthem Pinot Noir Discover 2007 which was awarded a bronze medal at this year's Christchurch Royal Easter Show.
James Dicey, operations manager at vineyard management company Grape Vision, which was overseeing the vines for Mr Henderson, told the Queenstown Times he could only say "no comment" on the state of this year's grapes.
The block of land bought in a mortgagee sale by Bannockburn wine-maker and Remarkable Wines owner Richard Guthrie was "clear title" and had no mortgage, Mr Sargison said.
"There should be no issue there."
There were still other legal issues facing the receivers which would be heard next month in the High Court at Christchurch.
Mr Sargison would not clarify the matters while they were still to go before the courts.
However, in November he told the ODT Mr Henderson was disputing who had entitlement to about 40,000 litres of wine stored in Wanaka, estimated to be worth more than $1 million.
An application had been made to the court for a determination on the matter.
When asked to comment, Mr Henderson said it was "news to me".
