Ashley and Tash Chabrel are closing the door on a chapter of their life by selling half of their vineyards and the family home in Barmera, one of several families across SA's Riverland region choosing to diversify or exit.
Mr Chabrel's grandfather started farming at the nearby town of Glossop after World War II when he received land through the soldier-settler scheme, while Ms Chabrel's family had been in the industry since the 1970s.
But after generations of growing wine grapes, the couple hope that shifting their focus to a more profitable side of their business — growing dried fruit — would bring them a better work-life balance.
"I think it goes against the mentality of growers to sell things but I think in business we had to look at all the options," Mr Chabrel said.
"There's been a few sales in our area with pretty decent results and I think the buyers still see the opportunity."
Their decision comes amid a difficult harvest, with disease pressure due to consecutive La Nina events, flooding in the Murray-Darling Basin, and China's ongoing tariffs on Australian wine.
The latest quarterly report from Wine Australia also shows that, despite finding more destinations to ship wine to, the overall value and volume of Australian exports has declined.
But Ms Chabrel said the thought of selling had been on the couple's mind for "about 12 months".
"When [the listing] went live, our phones just went wild," she said.
"The vintage coincided with our decision."
Mr Chabrel, former chair of the winegrape CCW Co-operative, started planting grapes for dried fruit in 2015 and was now a director of Dried Fruits Australia.
"We were looking to diversify, so we took a leap of faith and we're both grateful, I think," he said.
"We won't be getting out of winegrapes. We think they are a pretty good match and there's a lot of shared machinery between the two crop types."
End of an era
Up river at Bookpurnong, Bob Franchitto has listed for sale Salena Estate, the winery he named after his daughter.
After purchasing the land in 1998, he developed it into one of Australia's largest producers of organic red wine, with almost 200 hectares of vineyards, crushing and storage facilities, a distillery, cellar door and restaurant.
Mr Franchitto said putting his business on the market had been a family decision.
"We decided it's time to plan a retirement strategy or an exit strategy and slow down a bit," he said.
"I think the industry has bottomed out a little bit, things are starting to look a little bit brighter and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel."
Mr Franchitto said while the sale could take years to finalise, he welcomed a changing of the guard.
"It's positive. New blood comes in with different opportunities and different ideas," he said.
While he was unsure about selling both of his family residences, currently listed for sale with the business, he planned to stay in the Riverland.
"We might take a little bit of time off and then see what life brings," Mr Franchitto said.
"We don't know whether we will stay active in the industry. We will see what happens."
It is not just families in the Riverland that are considering cashing out.
International wine company Accolade has listed for sale Banrock Station, which includes 235 hectares of vineyards, a wine centre, and RAMSAR-accredited wetlands, at Kingston-on-Murray.
A company spokesperson said they were not selling the Banrock brand and would continue to operate the facilities under a leaseback arrangement.
Barossa businesses also selling
South Australian Wine Industry Association chief executive Brian Smedley said while there were more wine businesses on the market than usual, the trend was not isolated to the Riverland.
"'Some family businesses or prominent name businesses have been sold recently in the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale to other wine companies," he said.
"So that's a good thing in the sense that it's not considered to be a bad buying proposition.
"But I accept at current conditions people would be evaluating whether the wine industry is there for the long term, particularly if people are looking at succession plans.
"One of those plans might be listing their property for sale."
