Lowesoft Vineyard in Tasmania. Image courtesy Cellarhand

CellarHand has announced that it has signed a key distribution agreement with Western Australia’s Fogarty family for the distribution of their Fogarty Wine Group stable of wine brands including Deep Woods Estate (Margaret River), Dalwhinnie (Pyrenees), Lakes Folly (Hunter Valley) and the about to be released Lowestoft Wines from Tasmania.

CellarHand, based in Melbourne, was founded in 1999 by Patrick and Virginia Walsh and has a history of representing family-owned wineries from around Australia and New Zealand as well as shipping a portfolio of wineries from Germany, Austria, France, Italy and beyond which will now be completed by the Fogarty Wine Group brands.

“This is an exciting moment for Virginia, myself and our whole team in our CellarHand journey, one that allows us to tackle the next decade and beyond with renewed confidence,” Patrick Walsh, founder and managing director of CellarHand remarked.

“The demand for high-quality wine is at an all-time high and coming out of the COVID years we were of a mind to make prudent additions to our folio if the right winery presented itself.

“We were obviously very much aware of Julian Langworthy’s winemaking prowess through his Nocturne label so when the possibility arose to add Deep Woods Estate other brilliant Fogarty Wine Group wineries to our portfolio in the knowledge that Jules and his team was at the helm it was an opportunity that definitely warranted our attention.

“The fact that there were very few portfolio clashes and certainly none that we haven’t been able to work through was paramount to our decision to embrace this.”

Peter Fogarty said the family had long been admirers of the work Cellarhand have done over the years.

“[They have a] fabulous book of producers and in acknowledging the great market demand for our wines particularly from top restaurants, hotels and independent retailers up and down the Eastern seaboard was not really being met, we were keen to appoint the very best distributor to see to that,” he said.

“Mark and I are thrilled that our own wineries have now joined the CellarHand family. We look forward to seeing our labels on top restaurant lists up and down the country.”

The distribution agreement comes into effect on October 1st and is for all states excluding WA.

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