Casella plans for Peter Lehmann Wines

Casella makes the hugely successful YellowTail brand that sells 12.5 million cases of wine annually around the world from its base in Griffith in NSW. It has made a $1.50 per share offer which has been accepted by 86 per cent shareholder, Swiss-based Hess Group, and Margaret Lehmann, the wife of the late Peter Lehmann, who controls the family's estate with 10.4 per cent of the shares.

Mr Casella said Peter Lehmann Wines would be run as a stand-alone business initially, and there may be some efficiencies pursued further down the track. But the headquarters on the outskirts of Tanunda in the Barossa Valley would be retained.

"I can say with certainty production will stay here," he said, referring to the winery at Tanunda.

Casella will pay around $57 million, just over a third of the $149 million Hess paid in 2003 when wine companies were fetching lofty multiples.

"It's the cycle," Mr Casella says when asked if he had picked up the asset on the cheap. "It's at a point when things are turning," he said.

The purchase came a day after a court appearance in Griffith Local Court by one of the three brothers who built up YellowTail. Marcello Casella, the youngest brother in Australia's largest family-owned winery, has been charged over his alleged involvement in a drug syndicate operating out of Griffith.

John Casella said on Thursday that Marcello was not involved in Casella Wines anymore. "He's not a director and not a shareholder," Mr Casella said. He didn't want to comment further about the court matter. "Definitely not," he said.

Margaret Lehmann, who represents the interests of the estate of Peter Lehmann, who died at the age of 82 in June, 2013, has agreed to accept for the 10.4 per cent stake she controls. Directors have also recommended the remaining 450 shareholders, many of whom are loyal grapegrowers, accept the offer.

Margaret Lehmann said it is a good thing to have the company back under Australian ownership and in private hands, with private companies better able to withstand the "ups and downs" of the industry.

"It's now back in Australian hands which is very pleasing," she said on Thursday.

Hess Group wanted to concentrate on its Californian wine assets, and so Ms Lehmann said in the end it was an simple decision to sell the family's stake, and one which the late Peter would have approved of.

"He would say you've made the right decision," she said.

The ownership change comes after a tragic 16 months for the company. In late June this year former managing director Doug Lehmann, 62, died after suffering a heart attack, just a year after his famous father, and company founder Peter lost a long battle with kidney disease.

Hess, which also owns wineries in Argentina, South Africa and California and has hotel interests in Europe, has been the majority owner since 2003.

Hess acquired the stake at a time when the Lehmann family and its investment bankers believed they were a better fit with the culture at a time when British beverages giant Allied Domecq had made a hostile takeover attempt.

John Casella said the Peter Lehmann Wines brands were a good fit with Casella's own portfolio. "They are brands that don't compete with each other," he said. "It puts us into the premium area faster than if we tried to do it ourselves," referring to the difficult task of building a more premium focus from the Casella labels.

Peter Lehmann Wines listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1993, and Doug Lehmann was its inaugural managing director as it spent a decade as a stand-alone ASX-listed company.

In its latest set of financial statements lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Peter Lehmann Wines generated a 75 per cent increase in net profit to $754,000 in the 12 months ended June 30, 2014, while revenue increased by 13.9 per cent to $47.9 million.

The company went through some difficult times financially in 2013 as the high Australian dollar hurt profit margins on export sales, It renegotiated a new banking facility in 2013 with the National Australia Bank after breaching banking covenants.

The company had an unusual formation. Peter Lehmann was chief winemaker at Saltram Wines in the Barossa Valley in the 1960s and 1970s and famously defied the company's then owner Dalgety in 1977 when there was a large grape glut in the industry.

Dalgety had ordered him to renege on contracts with about 60 loyal grapegrowers, who would have been financially ruined. Peter Lehmann refused and left to set up his own company called Masterson, and later changed its name to Peter Lehmann Wines in 1982.