On 12 October 2026, Treasury Wine Estates (TWE), the Australian company behind Penfolds, agreed to sell three wine brands, Rosemount, Ingoldby and Secret Stone, with their inventory, to A.G. Oatley Wines, a company owned by the Oatley family. The price was not disclosed. Completion was expected on 23 October, Business News Australia reported. For the family, it is a homecoming: Bob Oatley founded Rosemount in 1969, and the family sold it 25 years ago.
From coffee to wine, and back again
Bob Oatley made his first fortune in coffee, Wine Spectator and WBM wrote in their obituaries; WBM credits him with opening up Papua New Guinea’s coffee and cocoa markets in the 1960s. He then bought land in the Upper Hunter Valley in New South Wales and started Rosemount Estate, building it into an export brand.
In 2001 Rosemount merged into Southcorp in a deal worth nearly A$1.5 billion. Foster’s, the brewer, took over Southcorp in 2005, and in May 2011 it spun off its wine business as Treasury Wine Estates, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. Oatley started again in the mid-2000s with Robert Oatley Vineyards. He died in January 2016, aged 87.
His son Sandy Oatley, one of the owners of A.G. Oatley Wines, says he spent some two decades building Rosemount with his father. He said the family was “thrilled” to “bring Rosemount home to our family once again”. A.G. Oatley Wines has also recently bought Murray Street Vineyards in the Barossa Valley and La Colline Vineyard in McLaren Vale.
Why TWE is selling
TWE is cutting its portfolio from 76 brands to 30 global and regional priority brands, and putting its money behind Penfolds, DAOU and Matua. Angus Lilley, its managing director for Australia, New Zealand and Europe, said it had sold five brands and other non-priority assets since announcing the plan last year. Under the deal, TWE may keep selling Rosemount in Europe for up to three years without paying royalties.
A brand that was the centre of a founder’s life became one of dozens inside a large listed company. When the owner decided to focus, the founding family was a natural buyer. It is not the only family deal in TWE’s clean-up: in May it handed the Rouge Homme brand to the Redman family, Food & Drink Business reported.
What to watch
- Completion, expected on 23 October.
- Whether the price or the brands’ sales figures are ever disclosed.
- How the family positions Rosemount once TWE’s European selling rights end.
A fair caveat
Because the price is undisclosed, we cannot say whether the family is buying back cheaply or dearly. Reports describe the sale as brands and inventory, so it is not the same business Bob Oatley sold in 2001.
Questions to bring to your advisors
If our family sold a business, would we want a way to buy back the name one day, and how would we judge what it is worth then? These are questions to bring to your advisors, not advice.