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Circe Wines and Accolade Wines are pleased to announce they have reached an agreement for Circe to acquire Stonier. The transaction includes the Stonier brand, 26 hectares of premium vineyards, grower partnerships, winery and cellar door at Merricks, one hour south of Melbourne.

Circe is owned by three local families: the Drummond, McLeod & Thickins families.

“Moving home from NZ, I was keen to grow Circe,” said Circe co-owner Aaron Drummond, who has recently returned to the Mornington Peninsula after eight years as General Manager of New Zealand’s Craggy Range winery.

“When my partners at Circe and I heard that Stonier was for sale we were very keen…given the quality of the wine, the exceptional vineyards and our shared vision of taking the best of Mornington Peninsula wine to the rest of the world.

“We all have plenty of experience in the wine industry and are passionate about this as a long term, world class, family orientated fine wine project.

“I grew up on the Mornington Peninsula with Brian Stonier’s grandchildren, so had a lot of exposure to the wines. They were iconic, and this is where we want to get back to…less volume with a focus on rebuilding on premise here and overseas, great farming, and an aspiration of making some of the region’s best Pinot Noir and Chardonnay”.

“We are very pleased to see Stonier going back to local families who have a passion for high-quality premium wine,” Accolade Wines chief supply chain officer Derek Nicol said.

“While Stonier has a well-deserved reputation for producing premium wine, it is not a brand that Accolade can scale at this time so we have made the strategic decision to divest the asset and reinvest the capital to support our global growth strategy.

“We have loved having the brand in our portfolio and we wish the new owners every success as we believe they will be strong custodians of the Stonier brand, its business and its people.”

The completion date of the sale is set for Friday November 25, 2022.

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