The Awatere Valley farm was one of the last substantial blocks in Marlborough able to be developed as vineyard.
“Only so much is easily made for viticulture and I’d say three quarters of it is taken,” Yealands said.
He has taken over the farm from long-time owners Ken and Shirley Marfell, paying $4.35 million in a deal brokered by PGG Wrightson Real Estate.
The property, adjoining the existing Yealands vineyard land near Seddon, would be planted over the next year and should provide the first grapes for wine in 2020.
“The plants are ordered and it’s full steam ahead for all the land that’s suitable for grapes.
“We’ll move the sheds, build a couple of dams and landscape what we don’t plant.”
Wetlands would be developed and some trees planted. A lot of the farm was in steeper south-facing land.
Most of the planting would be in sauvignon blanc but there would also be smaller areas of pinot noir, pinot gris and chardonnay.
Ken Marfell, now 76, was born on the farm next door when it was also Marfell-owned and had farmed Straits View since about 1956.
He bred and finished sheep, fattened a small number of steers each year and grew dry peas as seed for the Talleys vegetable business.
“I’ve enjoyed working with the sheep,” he said.
The region was typically very dry but he had enough irrigation to enable him to keep the ewe lambs onfarm in dry years, though cattle often had to be sent away early.
“The last two years have been very dry and I haven’t been able to make hay,” he said.
“This winter has been very mild and two dams are dry and that worries me.”
However, that was not why he sold the farm.
“Available bare land has been at a premium for some time and sales like this have become increasingly rare.”
Greg Lyons
PGG Wrightson
“It’s been a long time and I’ve given it a good crack,” he said.
The Yealands vineyards had been a neighbour for 16 years and Yealands said he had been trying to buy the farm for the last three or so years.
“They’ve been terrific neighbours and good friends and Ken’s a very good negotiator. In the end we paid him what he wanted.”
The Marfells were living on the farm for the time-being but were looking at a small property in nearby Seddon, still close enough for Shirley’s music teaching and orchestra interests in Blenheim.
Wrightson agent Greg Lyons, who marketed the property with colleague Joe Blakiston, said Marlborough’s sizeable sheep and beef properties with conversion potential had progressively been sold over the last decade.
“Available bare land has been at a premium for some time and sales like this have become increasingly rare.”
Yealands also bought the Marfells’ sheep flock. The animals would be sold off as the farm was planted in grapes.
