Australia's leading wine exporter Casella Family Brands, the parent company behind Australia's biggest selling wine brand, Yellow Tail, has reportedly put up from 35 vineyards in Australia up for sale.

Australia’s leading wine exporter Casella Family Brands, the parent company behind Australia’s biggest selling wine brand, Yellow Tail, has reportedly put up 7200 hectares from 35 vineyards in Australia up for sale.

The sale includes farms in the Riverina region, Barossa Valley, Clare Valley, Langhorne and Currency Creek and Limestone Coast areas in South Australia, according to local Australian reports.

The sale is described by Casella’s managing director John Casella as part of the family-owned wine giant’s long-term development plan, and the sale won’t change contractual agreements for the supply of grapes.

Yellow Tail is one of the Australia's most exported wine brands (pic: Behence)

Yellow Tail is one of the Australia’s most exported wine brands (pic: Behence)

Founded in 1969, Casella is counted as one of Australia’s biggest wine exporters and owns popular brands such as Yellow Tail and Peter Lehmann.

Yellow Tail was first launched and exported to the US in 2001 and has since become a huge success. The initial year, it was expecting to sell 25,000 cases but actual sales rounded up to half a million.

Today, US market makes up over 50% of Yellow Tail’s global sales volume as of February and accounted for half of Australian wine sales in value as of March, Frankie Harding, corporate affairs manager at Casella, told SCMP.

Its US market success also helped buffer the blow from China’s punitive tariffs formally imposed last March, which will last until 2026.

Unlike its rival Treasury Wine Estates, owner of Penfolds, which heavily leaned on Chinese market before the bust, China accounted for only 3% of Casella’s annual turnover based on its 2020 financial report.

Globally, 14 million cases of Yellow Tail were sold in 2020.