The Sebastiani and Cuneo families have announced that they have entered into a transaction to sell Sebastiani Vineyards Inc. to the Foley Wine Group. Financial details were not disclosed.
Mary Ann Cuneo, CEO and granddaughter of the winery's founder, Samuele Sebastiani, said, "We are confident that this transaction will strengthen Sebastiani's leading reputation as one of North America's premier producers of wine, and continue the Sebastiani heritage of consistent quality and value."
Sebastiani Vineyards was founded in 1904 and offers six tiers of wine. The Sebastiani family recently completed construction of a new winery and hospitality center, renovating and remodeling the original winery building that was constructed in...
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Kirkland Ranch Winery, a large winery southeast of Napa that was involved in the nearly $60 million reorganization of Viansa Italian Marketplace & Winery, is being offered for sale in a sealed-bid auction in early December.
According to the North Bay Business Journal, Kirkland Knightsbridge LLC wants a minimum bid of $22 million for the 10-year-old, 57,000-square-foot winery. That's less than half the $50 million value estimated for the property in mid-2007 reorganization court documents for...
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At Lange Twins Winery & Vineyards, the family is seeing their business fuel costs soar from about $250,000 four years ago to more than $1 million by the end of this season, Wine Business reports.
"Our pricing for the product we grow isn't going up, so we're absorbing the additional costs when our margins are already thin," said Randall Lange, who owns the vineyards over a four-county area in Northern California with his twin brother Brad and their wives. Their children own the winery.
Many petroleum- and mineral-based fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides also have more than...
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Overall wine consumption in the United States rose 3.2 percent in 2007 to 292.1 million 9-liter cases, according to the
Beverage Information Group's recently released 2008 Wine Handbook.
"If wine continues to grow at these levels, the U.S. will surpass both Italy and France to become both the largest wine market and biggest wine importer in the world by the end of the decade," says Eric Schmidt, manager of information services for the Beverage Information Group.
Important demographic trends cited in the 2008 Wine Handbook are quite favorable for the wine industry. The 70 million people that...
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French vintners are turning to outer space to outwit foreign rivals, with new satellite technology giving an overview of vineyards' physical characteristics and potential.
The satellite images, produced by French wine consultancy body ICV and geo-information provider Infoterra, give growers information on water stress and grape composition, allowing better management of the vinification.
The technology, called Oenoview, is a combination of aerial photographs and satellite imagery in the near-infrared, which provides...
Diamond Estates Wines & Spirits Ltd., the distribution and marketing agency that owns EastDell Estates, Lakeview Cellars and Birchwood Estates wineries and Dan Aykroyd Wines in Canada, has acquired the 20 Bees Winery.
The announcement was made by Murray Marshall, President & CEO of Diamond Estates.
The 20 Bees winery is a 43,000-square-foot facility located on approximately 29 acres of land in the...
A report predicts Spain will produce more wine than France by 2015.
The report, commissioned on behalf of the Vignerons Independents (France's independent winemakers' association), says French production is expected to drop from the 2000-04 annual average of 52.8 million hectoliters to 43.9 million hls.
Italy, at 60 million hl per year, is the biggest producer of wine in the world, followed by France and Spain at 45 million hl each (on average) in...
Margaret Duckhorn has been elected Wine Institute Board Chairman for the 2008-09 fiscal year.
The election took place at the 74th annual Wine Institute Meeting of Members, held at the Four Seasons Resort in Santa Barbara, Calif.
Duckhorn is co-founder and Executive Vice President of Industry Relations at Duckhorn Wine Company, which includes...
Fueled by strong
gains in premium California wine volume, California wine sales to the U.S.
continued to increase in 2007 to a record-high 457 million gallons (192.1
million 9-liter cases), up 2 percent over the previous year.
The retail value
of these shipments increased 6 percent to $18.9 billion, according to the
year-end summary in the Gomberg-Fredrikson Report.
Total
California winery shipments to all markets in the
U.S.
and abroad increased 3 percent to...
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Silicon Valley Bank, a leading provider of commercial banking services to the wine industry, released its annual "State of the Wine Industry Report" last week.
Based on in-house expertise and primary research, the report reveals trends and tackles critical issues facing the U.S. wine industry, including bottle pricing, grape and inventory supply, foreign competition, the weak dollar, regulations and sales distribution challenges.
The report forecasts the next 12 months to be generally positive for the industry as a whole. However, it predicts that the fine wine...