Wine company unveils $165 million new facility

Treasury Wine Estates, the company behind some of Australia’s biggest wine brands, has unveiled a $165m new state-of-the-art facility in the heart of the Barossa. 

TWE, which produces Penfolds, Wolf Blass and Pepperjack among many, says it is the largest premium winemaking site in the Southern Hemisphere, with the capacity to produce more than 100 million litres of wine every year.

The TWE Barossa site is the winemaker’s largest bottling operation in the world, packaging up to 216 million bottles per year, operating four bottling lines, and exporting to more than 70 countries around the world. 

The site will employ around 400 permanent team members and up to 600 during peak vintage periods.

It was opened by CEO Tim Ford and chief supply officer Kerrin Petty alongside South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas.

The new site provides TWE with the ability to increase premium winemaking capacity by one-third, drive production efficiencies, and expand storage capacity. 

The site includes an additional production line, processing infrastructure and additional barrel storage facilities.

Petty said the new facility demonstrated the company’s commitment to South Australia and its continued focus on innovation in the wine sector.

“It’s a proud moment to unveil our new Barossa wine production facility, which has been two and a half years in the making through the challenges of the pandemic,” Petty said. 

“The new site is purpose-built for premium winemaking with the flexibility to scale up or down production depending on demand, which is crucial given the ebbs and flows of wine production.

“Sustainability has been front of mind throughout the entire project with the new infrastructure allowing us to manage the impacts of climate change on vintages and ensuring we can protect our most valuable grapes and produce the highest quality wine even in challenging years.

“It also sets us up to pursue our commitment to net zero. As our first step toward our target of being powered 100% by renewable energy by 2024, we are installing solar panels to offset 22% of the site’s energy consumption from the grid.

“We have also installed a purpose-built 254 megalitre dam to store treated water waste in winter and irrigate our vineyards in summer.”

The new winemaking site at Stockwell also includes a 4,500m2 Icon Cellar Building which will offer site tours.