Ever dreamed of owning a winery. This is a very unique opportunity!
| Asking Price: | $3,500,000 |
| Established Year: | 2004 |
| Real Estate: | $3,500,000 |
The vineyard was planted in the early 1860s during the Civil war, making it one of California’s oldest vineyards. In the 1960s it was planted to Pinot Noir. In 2004, the current owners purchased the property and after replanting the six-acre vineyard, they waited patiently for the vines to mature before resuming production of estate pinot noir in 2012.
They have been making the wine every year since. The issue, and the reason they are looking for a partner is they never really wanted to ‘own’ a winery per se and have not invested in any sales and marketing so they are stacked up on inventory. We have engaged a well know distributor partner in most states to help sell the backlog of wine. Happy to disclose that information at a later point, but know that none of this inventory is to be discounted in any way. You would of course be able to determine whether this is a partnership that you keep or move away from.
I have tasted through the vintages and these really are exceptional wines and worthy of their $125/bottle price tag.
They are flexible on what a transaction might look like, but they have some parameters on a preferred deal. One of the main parameters is that they would like the brand they have created to continue on in some form. They obviously own the vineyard and surrounding acreage and are willing to sell up to all of that or have someone come in and just take a controlling interest and they would stay on as part owners. They would also consider retaining ownership of the vineyard and having somebody just do the winemaking and brand development/sales. If you have other thoughts about how a deal may be structured, they would be open to just about anything. The one thing they don’t want is to have active daily participation in any winery activities as they are tied up with their various philanthropic endeavors.
This is a non-traditional deal, but the vineyard produces exceptional wines of distinction and the stated purpose of the owners was to become one California’s greatest Pinot Noirs. If you taste the wines, you can see that is an achievable goal.
They are seeking a structure whereby they receive consideration for the stewardship of the vineyard which they have nurtured for the last 20 years. They are open to structures, but their ideal scenario would have these considerations:
Maintaining the brand in some fashion
Limited capital or expense contributions from the current owners
Receive revenue on sales of existing and future inventory
Role in the winemaking process for the current winemaker
The real estate is available here and there is space to build an estate home on the property is that is something that is desired.
