Luxury Hotel du Vin in the hands of receivers

Ed Aster and his wife own Hotel Du Vin, which offers 48 chalets, a vineyard and spa complex to wealthy clients. Photo / Martin Sykes

The future of a luxury boutique hotel known for its appeal as a wedding venue is up in the air after it went into receivership.

Hotel du Vin, located south of Auckland near Pokeno, was bought by wealthy American Ed Aster and his wife in 2001 on a visit to New Zealand.

The hotel features 48 chalets, a vineyard and full spa complex and caters to the wealthy, offering activities from archery and claybird shooting to a team-building arena.

But on Friday receivers Kordamentha were called in to manage the business and all of its assets.

Companies office records show Hotel du Vin is directly owned by Leeward Holdings - the holding company for Aster Investment Company which was also put into receivership on Friday.

Its spa business Spa du Vin is also owned by Aster Investment Company.

The hotel is managed by the Heritage Hotel Management chain and continues to be run. Heritage is not in receivership.

Neither Aster or the receivers returned calls yesterday.

A spokesman for Heritage Hotel Management said it was continuing to operate the hotel under the receivers and would continue to do so until a formal agreement was reached.

A meeting would be held with the receivers today.

The receivership is the second blow to Aster's New Zealand business investments in the past seven months.

Aster also held a 10 per cent stake in discount liquor chain The Warehouse Cellars through his company Reliance Wines.

The Warehouse axed the stores at the end of last year after pulling out of the supermarket trade and scrapping its Warehouse Extra formats.

Aster made his money from Aster Publishing which he set up in 1977 and sold for more than US$24 million.

In New Zealand, he and his wife also own Firstland Vineyards, De Redcliffe Estates and The Vineyard Restaurant.