Calabria Family Wines doubles in size & re-launches

September 9, 2021
By Ioni Doherty

Calabria Wines has doubled in size this past year, evolving to such an extent that today it has announced a new business model named, Calabria Family Wines Group.

Calabria Family Wine Group will house the family’s collection of brands and aims to ensure each of the brands continues to carry their distinct identities, portfolios, and distribution strategies.

This past year, the Calabria Family has acquired McWilliam’s Wines brand and Hanwood Winery, Deakin Estate, and La La Land Wines with the portfolio of the business growing from 140 SKUs to 283 SKUs in the past ten months.

“It’s been an exciting year for us at Calabria Family Wines. We have rapidly expanded from a single producer-owned and operated wine company to a wine group housing some of Australia’s best-loved wine brands and a selection of diverse international wine distribution partnerships. The creation of the Group is a direct response to this growth and our mission to showcase each of these brands in the best way possible,” third-generation Sales & Marketing Director Andrew Calabria said.

“This evolution is a significant step and a proud moment for us as a family. Calabria Family Wine Group now sits among the largest family-owned wine groups in Australia and made even more significant given we’ve just celebrated our 75th anniversary,” he said.

The brands and products will be serviced by the Calabria Family Wine Group sales team, which has bulked up with seven new members – mainly from McWilliam’s Wines – to ensure the knowledge of these wines is carried over to the newly established Group. Scott McWilliam (picured below with Andrew Calabria) has joined the business as Global Brand Ambassador for McWilliams and the business will continue to be operated by Bill Calabria AM, and the third generation the Calabria Family.

The new business model incorporates distribution arm Vintners & Co Merchants – representing Calabria Family Wines’ international distribution partnerships, including the Italian brands Canti and Librandi, prestigious Portugal port house Dow’s, Argentinian winery Dona Paula, and renowned French champagne producer Champagne Deutz.

“Our offering in the international wine space provides us with more scope to work with a broad range of bespoke and boutique wine cellars, as well as the on-premise channel. We’ve been incredibly selective in these distribution partnerships, with most representing generations of family heritage behind the wines, which we feel connects strongly to our own family-owned values,” Calabria said.

Late last year following Calabria’s distribution agreement with Portugal’s Symington family, Andrew Calabria told Drinks Trade the business was looking to expand its portfolio, and looking to other family-owned and operated wineries the world over to do so.

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