Sour grapes as contract row goes to court

Photo: Marlborough Express

SOUR GRAPES: Two vineyards have taken a row over a Marlborough management contract to the High Court in Auckland.

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As winegrowers big and small are having to bite the bullet in tough market conditions, two vineyards have taken their scrap over a Marlborough management contract to the High Court in Auckland.

Goldridge Estate Vineyards, a sister company of the burgeoning Matakana Estate north of Auckland, appeared in court yesterday in relation to a dispute with Kakara Estate, which has a company address on Auckland's North Shore.

Goldridge and Matakana Estates, one of the biggest producers in the area, are headed by Peter Vegar and wife Jean.

The action followed Kakara, run by Murray and Bruce Forlong, terminating its grape supply contract with Goldridge company Hillersen Vineyard Contracting.

Kakara's lawyer, Andrew Gilchrist, told Justice Edwin Wylie that his clients felt they'd been "mucked around". "There's a fundamental breakdown between these parties."

He said his clients were wealthy investors who paid a lot of money for the vineyard – purchased from Goldridge in 2006 – and had paid for vineyard management.

Their first crop gave a poor return, however, because it had to be sold on market at the last minute after Goldridge, Kakara said, decided not to buy it. Mr Gilchrist said the contract gave Kakara the right to terminate if Goldridge elected not to buy their grapes.

David Jones, QC, said his clients were fourth-generation wine growers Peter and Paul Vegar, brothers who were respectively skilled in viticulture and vineyard development.

Their great grandfather Luka Lunjevich sailed from Croatia in 1902 seeking a better life and an opportunity to start a vineyard. He was on the steamer Elingamite which hit rocks and sank near Three Kings Islands near North Cape. He survived and planted his vineyard in Kaitaia.

Kakara, he said, had no knowledge of the wine industry and became passive investors.

Affidavits showed the vineyard and plants to be healthy and strong and managed to a high standard "in stark relief to the complaints made by the defendants".

"There is an ongoing obligation for the plaintiff [Goldridge] to manage the vineyard and they're doing that and they're not getting paid."

There was no real downside for Kakara as the vines, mostly sauvignon blanc, continued to be managed to high standards.

He said Goldridge had developed the property from bare land to an operational vineyard in four years and an April valuation showed "a tidy profit" of $11.5 million.

The hearing concluded yesterday and judgment was reserved.

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