The current funding climate, and difficulties in financing the picking and processing of a 20% increase in last year's grape crop, compounded by the failure of an overseas investor to complete the settlement of a major stage of the McArthur Ridge vineyard, has led to the present situation, director and sole shareholder of Central Otago Vintners Winery, Robin Schulz, said.
"The situation has been exacerbated by the inability in this current climate to fund the significantly larger crop from last year; and the completion of stage two of the complex," Mr Schulz said.
The collapse has left millions of dollars owed to secured creditors, and an estimate of hundreds of thousands of dollars owed to unsecured creditors.
Duncan Fea and Alistair King, of WHK Cook Adam Ward Wilson, have been appointed as receivers for Central Otago Vintners, which is built on the former Heartland Meatworks site on Ripponvale Road.
Mr Fea had spent the past few weeks working through the process to get a clear understanding of the assets involved.
"It is a clean and clear company with regards to assets, with top-of-the-the-line equipment. I am delighted with what presents in both quality and condition, and I am looking forward to realising those assets.
"We are looking to sell, to pay back secured lenders," he said.
He was working on the list of secured creditors, and did not know at this stage how many unsecured creditors there were.
Mr Schulz is a director of McArthur Ridge Wines, and Central Otago Pinot Noir Estate, which owns the land where the proposed $500 million dollar Melview (McArthur Ridge) hotel and golf course complex are to be built.
He said the receivership of Central Otago Vintners was in no way connected with Melview.
Melview legal affairs director Warwick Goldsmith is holidaying in Vanuatu, and he did not want to comment when contacted by the Otago Daily Times yesterday.
Klaus Sorenson, from the Sorenson Group, which acts for Melview Developments, confirmed there was no link between Melview and the failed winery.
Central Otago Mayor Malcolm Macpherson said what seemed to have tipped the winery over was the lack of confidence or the inability of the overseas company to pay.
He said it showed that what was happening in the rest of the world was affecting us.
"It's the world arriving on our doorstep, and we should think carefully and not take risks, as we are just as susceptible as the rest of the world."
People needed to be very careful about how they looked after their investments, Dr Macpherson said.
The state-of-the-art winery, which cost $10 million dollars to build, was opened just two years ago, with a promise it would become the country's largest pinot noir processing facility.
Stage one of the Central Otago Vintners Winery was completed in 2006, and plans were in place for stages two and three.
The company had begun by processing 250 tonnes of grapes in 2007, and intended to increase that to 1500 tonnes, in a planned expansion which would have seen stage two completed by February this year, but that did not happen.
Winemaker Jed Penkman is still employed by the company, under the direction of consultant Craig Gass from Nelson.
There are no other staff employed.
