Radek Sali puts Hawthorn Estate vineyard on the market with $15m hopes
Businessman-turned-agrarian Radek Sali is aiming for his second vineyard sale this year, putting two acres (0.8 hectares) under grapes on the banks of the Yarra River in Hawthorn on the market with a $15 million price tag.
Mr Sali, who in May sold an 8.7-hectare former sheep farm he turned into a vineyard to Czech coal mine and energy company owner Alan Svoboda for $23.5 million, decided to also sell the boutique – and unusual – vineyard in inner-suburban Melbourne because he was now based in NSW.
“I’m not one to hold on to things we don’t utilise or aren’t thinking about going back in the future,” Mr Sali told The Australian Financial Review.
“I’m just not into having a big property we don’t visit regularly.”
He paid $11 million in 2017 for the 32 Coppin Grove property with a four-bedroom house and has secured development approval for a new three-level mansion designed by Wood Marsh architects on the site.
Since moving to Brunswick Heads in northern NSW, however, he had little time to devote the vineyard, which produces 2000-3000 bottles’ worth a year, Mr Sali said.
If the expressions of interest campaign didn’t turn up a suitable buyer he said he would take it back off the market and develop the new home, he said.
“We’ve had offers. Upwards of $15 million is a fair price,” Mr Sali said. “If it doesn’t sell we’ll develop it and sell. It’s a pretty magical spot.”
Marshall White agent John Bongiorno is marketing the property.
Former Rich Lister Mr Sali, who made about $400 million in 2017 from the sale of his Swisse vitamins company, said the sale of his Musk Creek Road vineyard was now settling.
The property which has, in addition to the main home, a separate accommodation retreat, tennis court, pool and entertainment shed with bowling alley, recently received Foreign Investment Review Board authorisation to sell to a non-citizen, he said.
“We just got FIRB approval,” Mr Sali said. “They had some issue with FIRB, but we managed to show enough evidence it was [for] primary production.”
The Hawthorn property, put under vines by a previous owner about 25 years ago, has remained undeveloped because it is deemed a flood plain by the local council.
The grapes are pinot noir and chardonnay, with a small allotment of nebbiolo, for sparkling wine that is sold under the Hawthorn Estate label.
Mr Sali said he was down to the “last few bottles” of the 2017 vintage and that the 2018 vintage went to market this year.
A sale of the property could include rights to the wine.
“That’s all negotiable, of course,” Mr Sali said. “It depends on how passionate they are about the wine.”
