Wine & Viticulture

Williams + Hughes brings together experienced commercial and litigation lawyers from relevant fields including M&A, commercial property, IP, construction and commercial contracts to provide clients in the wine & viticulture industry with complete viticulture consultant services

Our viticulture consultant expertise includes advising on:

• Insurance claims
• Debt recovery in Australia and overseas
• Marketing and distribution agreements in Australia and overseas
• Contractual disputes
• Trade mark registration and protection
• Employment issues

Our recent viticulture consultant experience includes:

• Acting for the Fogarty Wine Group, WA's largest wine producer, on numerous acquisitions, including Evans & Tate brand purchase and transactions with McWilliams
• Advising a south west winery in a dispute with builder in relation to construction of winery in Harvey; and dispute with painter in relation to renovation works to facility in Harvey
• Advising on claim in relation to cooling failure in sub-contracted wine storage facility
• Advising on insurance claim in relation to smoke (fire) damage to wine
• Acting for a WA winery on debt recovery claims in relation to wine supplied in Australia and overseas
• Advising a local winemaker on and drafting of marketing and distribution agreements for wine and beer in Australia and overseas (including, China and USA)
• Advising a printing agency in relation to a contractual dispute over wine labelling with 3 Oceans Wine Company
• Acting for directors and creditors of a Brewery and Estate Winery & Vineyard in the South West of WA in relation to insolvency and restructure; defending against creditor claims, ongoing issues with liquor licence and tax disputes and lease dispute relating to café tenancy and supply of wine and beer
• Acting for the purchaser in the multi-million dollar acquisition of a high profile Western Australian wine label, based in the Margaret River wine region. This included drafting and negotiating share and property sale agreements, shareholder agreements, property leasing, corporate finance documents and providing general advice on the structure and documentation of the transaction
• Assisting the purchaser in an acquisition of a vineyard business, located in Margaret River. The $7 million business sale agreement incorporated both the purchase of assets and the vineyard property
• Advising a well-known Australian wine manufacturer on strategy for protecting wine labels internationally where a competitor had registered a similar trade mark in certain countries

If you are in need of viticulture consultant services or have any questions regarding legal operations, please contact us so we can assist.