{"id":798973,"date":"2026-07-14T04:27:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T04:27:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/798973\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T04:27:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T04:27:14","slug":"heartland-wines-collapse-of-3-1-million-sa-winemaker-exposes-australias-fading-love-affair-with-wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/798973\/","title":{"rendered":"Heartland Wines: Collapse of $3.1 million SA winemaker exposes Australia\u2019s fading love affair with wine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The shock collapse of an award-winning wine label in South Australia<\/a> has dealt another blow to the country\u2019s floundering industry, as makers face an uphill battle to attract younger customers.<\/p>\n

Heartland Wines, a red wine<\/a> producer located in Norwood in Adelaide\u2019s<\/a> east, collapsed into voluntary administration with debts totalling $3.6 million.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Heartland Wines appointed administrators last month and reportedly owes nearly $3.6 million to creditors.\u00a0Heartland Wines<\/p>\n

The company appointed Daniel Lopresti and Anna Agostino of Clifton Hall as administrators last month after nearly 30 years of operation.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Clifton Hall told nine.com.au <\/a>that Heartland Wines would trade as normal as administrators pursued \u201coptions for the sale or recapitalisation of the business\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the company\u2019s employees have been retained,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the date of the administrators\u2019 appointment, there were no outstanding wages or superannuation payable to the company\u2019s employees.\u201d<\/p>\n

The estimated stock value before Heartland Wines plunged into administration was thought to be about $3.13 million.<\/p>\n

However, company directors John Collett, Ben Glaetzer and Nick Keukenmeeste told administrators the realisable value of its assets was about $1.6 million.<\/p>\n

The directors have proposed a deed of company arrangement (DOCA).<\/p>\n

This is expected to result in unsecured creditors being returned between 4.5 cents and 5.3 cents on the dollar.<\/p>\n

A second creditors meeting is expected to take place on July 20.<\/p>\n

Related entity Glaetzer Wines\u00a0is not impacted by the voluntary administration, the spokesperson for Clifton Hall added.<\/p>\n

Heartland Wines began in the late 1990s and specialises in award-winning bold reds, including shiraz and cabernet sauvignon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ben Glaetzer, owner and winemaker at Heartland Wines.\u00a0Heartland Wines<\/p>\n

Wine industry fighting against slump<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s renowned wine industry is facing a generational slump as producers and labels struggle against market changes at home and abroad.<\/p>\n

Endeavour Group, the owner of Dan Murphy\u2019s and BWS, announced in May that it would move away from vineyards and wineries in SA, Victoria and Tasmania.<\/p>\n

Among them are famous cellar doors Riddoch Coonawarra and Krondorf Barossa.<\/p>\n

The group also flagged plans to drastically reduce its grape production and investments in grape growing in Australia.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, owner of the iconic Penfolds Wines, Treasury Wine Estates (TWE), posted a staggering loss of almost $650 million in its February results<\/a>, driven in part by a huge hole in its international market.<\/p>\n

Treasury Wines Estates portfolio includes popular labels DAOU, Stags\u2019 Leap, Pepperjack, Squealing Pig, 19 Crimes and Matua.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Heartland is famed for its supply of bold reds.\u00a0@heartlandwines<\/p>\n

Australia also has an eye-watering oversupply of wine.<\/a><\/p>\n

Wine Australia estimates there is more than 2 billion litres of stockpiled wine \u2013 the equivalent of almost 860 Olympic swimming pools \u2013 sitting in storage.<\/p>\n

The Australian wine glut ballooned as growers grappled with\u00a0Chinese trade sanctions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Asian powerhouse economy was the most valuable market for Australian wine exports in 2020, but then one year later China imposed anti-dumping tariffs as political and trade relations between Canberra and Beijing hit a low.<\/p>\n

Australian wine exports to all markets collapsed by 33 per cent since China\u2019s trade hit on the industry.<\/p>\n

In the domestic market<\/a>, sales of Australian wine declined by three per cent in 2025 to 443 million litres \u2013 the second-lowest (after 2021\u201322) since 2007\u201308.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The De Bortoli family of winemakers is usually in the business of picking grapes – but right now they\u2019re ripping them up.\u00a0A Current Affair<\/p>\n

Famed winemaker uproots vines<\/p>\n

One of Australia\u2019s most well-known winemakers, Darren De Bortoli, laid bare the crisis faced by producers in a sobering video shared last month.<\/a><\/p>\n

De Bortoli decided to uproot Shiraz vines in the\u00a0Riverina and Rutherglen regions in NSW and told A Current Affair it was due to a \u201cnasty\u201d downturn in wine sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just can\u2019t continue to grow grapes and make wine and have the market prices way below the cost of production,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just the reality that we had to bite the bullet, and pulling out shiraz vines… it was just a necessity.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Bortoli said shiraz was facing a particularly dire downturn in the wine market.<\/p>\n

He added that younger Australians were turning away from grape varietals.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeneration Z is probably the most disconcerting thing\u2026 they\u2019re just not consuming alcohol generally and that\u2019s for a number of reasons,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople becoming probably more conscious about what they are consuming to some extent, particularly this anti-carbs sentiment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The shock collapse of an award-winning wine label in South Australia has dealt another blow to the country\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-798973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}