Collapse of $3.1 million SA wine label exposes Australia’s fading love affair with wine
The shock collapse of an award-winning wine label in South Australia has dealt another blow to the country’s floundering industry, as makers face an uphill battle to attract younger customers.
Heartland Wines, a red wine producer located in Norwood in Adelaide’s east, collapsed into voluntary administration with debts totalling $3.6 million.
Heartland Wines appointed administrators last month and reportedly owes nearly $3.6 million to creditors. Heartland Wines
The company appointed Daniel Lopresti and Anna Agostino of Clifton Hall as administrators last month after nearly 30 years of operation.
A spokesperson for Clifton Hall told nine.com.au that Heartland Wines would trade as normal as administrators pursued “options for the sale or recapitalisation of the business”.
“All of the company’s employees have been retained,” the spokesperson said.
“At the date of the administrators’ appointment, there were no outstanding wages or superannuation payable to the company’s employees.”
The estimated stock value before Heartland Wines plunged into administration was thought to be about $3.13 million.
However, company directors John Collett, Ben Glaetzer and Nick Keukenmeeste told administrators the realisable value of its assets was about $1.6 million.
The directors have proposed a deed of company arrangement (DOCA).
This is expected to result in unsecured creditors being returned between 4.5 cents and 5.3 cents on the dollar.
A second creditors meeting is expected to take place on July 20.
Related entity Glaetzer Wines is not impacted by the voluntary administration, the spokesperson for Clifton Hall added.
Heartland Wines began in the late 1990s and specialises in award-winning bold reds, including shiraz and cabernet sauvignon.
Ben Glaetzer, owner and winemaker at Heartland Wines. Heartland Wines
Wine industry fighting against slump
Australia’s renowned wine industry is facing a generational slump as producers and labels struggle against market changes at home and abroad.
Endeavour Group, the owner of Dan Murphy’s and BWS, announced in May that it would move away from vineyards and wineries in SA, Victoria and Tasmania.
Among them are famous cellar doors Riddoch Coonawarra and Krondorf Barossa.
The group also flagged plans to drastically reduce its grape production and investments in grape growing in Australia.
Meanwhile, owner of the iconic Penfolds Wines, Treasury Wine Estates (TWE), posted a staggering loss of almost $650 million in its February results, driven in part by a huge hole in its international market.
Treasury Wines Estates portfolio includes popular labels DAOU, Stags’ Leap, Pepperjack, Squealing Pig, 19 Crimes and Matua.
Heartland is famed for its supply of bold reds. @heartlandwines
Australia also has an eye-watering oversupply of wine.
Wine Australia estimates there is more than 2 billion litres of stockpiled wine – the equivalent of almost 860 Olympic swimming pools – sitting in storage.
The Australian wine glut ballooned as growers grappled with Chinese trade sanctions.
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.
Australian wine exports to all markets collapsed by 33 per cent since China’s trade hit on the industry.
In the domestic market, sales of Australian wine declined by three per cent in 2025 to 443 million litres – the second-lowest (after 2021–22) since 2007–08.
The De Bortoli family of winemakers is usually in the business of picking grapes - but right now they’re ripping them up. A Current Affair
Famed winemaker uproots vines
One of Australia’s most well-known winemakers, Darren De Bortoli, laid bare the crisis faced by producers in a sobering video shared last month.
De Bortoli decided to uproot Shiraz vines in the Riverina and Rutherglen regions in NSW and told A Current Affair it was due to a “nasty” downturn in wine sales.
“We just can’t continue to grow grapes and make wine and have the market prices way below the cost of production,” he said.
“It was just the reality that we had to bite the bullet, and pulling out shiraz vines... it was just a necessity.”
De Bortoli said shiraz was facing a particularly dire downturn in the wine market.
He added that younger Australians were turning away from grape varietals.
“Generation Z is probably the most disconcerting thing… they’re just not consuming alcohol generally and that’s for a number of reasons,” he said.
“People becoming probably more conscious about what they are consuming to some extent, particularly this anti-carbs sentiment.”
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