Aravina Estate property sold for $14.7m

Perth entrepreneur Steve Tobin has sold his prized Aravina Estate six years after he first put it on the market.

While speculation on the identity of the purchaser of the Yallingup Siding property has focused on a Asian hospitality group, the buyer was undisclosed.

The $14.7 million price, which settled on Friday, was just for the property. The original price tag was up to $20 million but that included additional wine assets such as inventories and goodwill.

Mr Tobin first flagged the possibility of the sale with Business News in 2017 after he sold a majority stake in his Terrex Seismic resources contracting business to private equity player Allegro. 

Early advertising for Aravina said offers above $16 million were being sought, however, that was for two adjoining properties with a combined 75 hectares of total land with almost 30ha of vines, much of it decades old. Current records from CoreLogic’s RP Data show only one of the properties, 67ha on Thornton Road, has been sold.

That property was acquired by Mr Tobin in 2010 for $5.5 million from Goundrey Wines.

Mr Tobin bought the smaller 8ha neighbouring property in 2012 for $1.7 million. It was unclear whether it was part of the deal and CoreLogic property records do not show a sale having taken place, although it was included in the original advertising.

Set in expansive lawns and gardens and built in the style of The Hamptons, Mr Tobin had described Aravina as a “labour of love” having developed a restaurant and major function area alongside the wine-focused infrastructure.

Despite being on the market, production at Aravina under winemaker Ryan Aggiss has lifted considerably in recent years, hitting 110,000 litres in the latest vintage, ranking it as the 27^th biggest producer in Western Australia.

Production was up almost 20 per cent from 92,000 litres the previous year. Volume has fluctuated from 81,000 litres in 2017 to as low as 58,000 litres in 2020, the latter being timed with the worst impact of the pandemic in WA.

The property was also home to beer brand 8Waves Brewing Co.