THE acclaimed Yarrawa Road, Denman, Two Rivers wine estate and brand have joined the associated Tulloch company in being put up for sale.
Tulloch, one of the great names of Hunter winemaking, is for sale by expressions of interest closing on July 30 and Two Rivers will be auctioned in Sydney on July 30 by JTS Realty Muswellbrook and Ray White Real Estate.
Both sales have been brought about by their majority shareholder Sydney businessman Ross Pitts wishing to retire.
Now in his 80s, Mr Pitts in 1988 joined John and Mary Muddle, of poker machine maker Nutt and Muddle, in buying a Denman dairy farm and establishing the Two Rivers vineyard.
Mr Pitts, who ran the Banjo Paterson Cottage Restaurant in the Sydney suburb of Gladesville and at one stage owned the Shoal Bay Country Club Hotel at Port Stephens, in 2001 played a major role in the resurgence of the Tulloch operation.
He took a controlling shareholding in Tulloch, sharing equity with Hunter Legend of Wine Jay Tulloch and his family with 20% and the South Australian Angove family wine company with 15%.
Two Rivers' first vines were established in 1989 and among the planters were the Muddles' daughter Linda, now Two Rivers' administration and cellar door manager, and her husband, Merriwa-born, Charles Sturt University viticulture graduate Brett Keeping, who is now general manager-chief viticulturist.
Two Rivers has chalked up excellent show performances - most notably in the 2018 Sydney Wine Show when it won four trophies - with the $50 2013 Stone's Throw Museum Semillon judged the best mature white and the best single-vineyard wine and the $20 2018Stone's Throw Semillon winning the best young white wine and best-value white trophies. And in the 2018 NSW Wine Awards the 2017 Yarrawa Road Chardonnay was the champion chardonnay.
Up for sale at Denman are the Hunter River-fronted 103.2-hectare Two Rivers property with its 64.51 hectares of vines, the 34.79-hectare The Flat block, with its 2.82 hectares of vines and 31.97 hectares of grazing and crop land, and the 41.88-hectare Waebron block with council approval for 20 rural residential home sites.
Also included on the vineyard are the Two Rivers cellar door, a homestead and a four-bedroom tourist-stay cottage and on Waebron a four-bedroom home.
The Two Rivers vineyards produce an annual average crush of 4500 tonnes of verdelho, chardonnay, viognier, chardonnay, shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, semillon and marsanne that is made into 10,000 cases of wine by Liz Silkman at the First Creek Pokolbin winery and, under a five-year grape supply contract, the Denman vines provide chardonnay, verdelho and semillon fruit for the Tulloch brand.
The Tulloch sale puts the future of the iconic Hunter business in the balance after 20 years in which it thrived under stable, caring management.
The Adelaide-based Langley and Co wine industry agency has advertised for expressions of interest revealing that Tulloch has annual case sales of 50,000, attracted 36,000 visitors a year to its expansive De Beyers Rd, Pokolbin, cellar door and vineyard and had a rare liquor licence allowing the sale of wine, beer and spirits. It had "irreplaceable history and authenticity" with "the ideal business model for continued growth".
Tulloch's general manager-CEO Christina Tulloch said last week the company could not be controlled by the Tulloch family alone but she was confident investors could be found to respect the company's history and tradition and see the value and potential of further growth.
"All the team here at Tulloch look forward to being a part of the next phase of this great Australian brand's story," Christina said.
The Tulloch saga began in 1893 when John Younie Tulloch, the proprietor of a general store on the corner of what is now the New England Highway and Clift St, Branxton, took over a 17.5-hectare property in De Beyers Rd, Pokolbin, in settlement of a debt run up by a vigneron store customer.
John Younie presided over the first Tulloch vintage in 1895 and for the next 74 years members of the family owned and ran J.Y. Tulloch and Sons. Until the 1950s it sold most of its wine in bulk to other producers but in 1952 the company produced the first of its famous own-label Pokolbin Dry Red and Hunter River White wines.
In the late 1950s and 1960s Tulloch was one of the most prestigious labels in Australia but in 1969 an era of turbulence began when the family sold the business to Reed Industries, a giant British paper company and owner of UK's racy Daily Mirror newspaper.
After five years, Reed sold to the Gilbeys Gin company, which in 1983 unloaded to the Allied Vintners subsidiary of brewer Castlemain Tooheys.
After a period, Allied Vintners sold to John Spalvins's then-powerful Adsteam group and from there Tulloch passed to the troubled giant Southcorp group, which in August 2001 sold the Tulloch business to the current ownership group of Ross Pitts, Jay Tulloch and his family and Angove Wines.
Jay, the grandson and officially the namesake of the original John Younie, had joined the then-family-owned company 1962 at the age of 18, became its general manager in 1973 and spent the next 23 years battling mightily to preserve the history and integrity of the Tulloch brand against unsympathetic attitudes of big business owners.
WINE REVIEWS
GLUGGABLE TULLOCH PDR
THE Tulloch 2018 Pokolbin Dry Red Shiraz is a gluggable Hunter drop that shines bright garnet in the glass and has cassis scents and lifted blackcurrant front-palate flavour. The middle palate shows Satsuma plum, spice, mint and mocha oak and dusty tannins. It is at the De Beyers Rd, Pokolbin, cellar door and tullochwines.com.
PRICE: $30.
DRINK WITH: veal and olive ragu.
AGEING: seven years.
RATING: 4.5 stars (out of 6)
STONE'S THROW ON TARGET
THIS Two Rivers 2021 Stone's Throw Semillon is from a marque that regularly wins show medals. It is straw-hued and has honeysuckle aromas and crisp, youthful lime front-palate flavour. Green apple, lemon curd and gunmetal show on the middle and flinty acid refreshes at the finish. At tworivers.com.au, the Denman cellar door and bottle shops.
PRICE: $22.
DRINK WITH: sashmi.
AGEING: six years.
RATING: 4.5 stars
LIZ'S CHARDONNAY GIFT
CONTRACT winemaker Liz Silkman's expert chardonnay hand is evident in this Two Rivers 2019 Yarrawa Road Chardonnay. It's green-tinted lemon and has melon and vanilla bean scents and elegant white nectarine front-palate flavour. Fig, nashi pear, mineral and cashew oak characters show on the middle palate and slatey acid plays at the finish.
PRICE: $50.
DRINK WITH: scallops.
AGEING: 10 years.
RATING: 5 stars
