AUSTRALIA: McGuigan Wines sets out alone after fruitless partner search

Brian McGuigan Wines is planning to build a new winery in South Australia, following an unsuccessful search for an acquisition.Managing director, Brian McGuigan said today he hoped that the winery would be operative by the 2002 vintage.Commenting after announcing the $A22m, 800-acre vineyard development in the Barossa Valley, McGuigan said that the winery would be in a central position with ready access to supplies and port facilities and easy access to New South Wales where the company is headquartered.McGuigan said the new Barossa Valley vineyard, on what is now farmland, would be developed in 2001.It was being investor-financed with McGuigan Wines developing and managing it. About 300,000 cases are expected to be produced from fruit grown on the property.McGuigan Wines is also developing a 200-acre vineyard in the Adelaide Hills, mainly planted with Sauvignon Blanc, and is about to add a further 500 acres to its 650-acre vineyard at Kingston, in South Australia's Riverland.