"In the midst of every crisis lies great opportunity" – Albert Einstein.
"Is it a crisis or a boring change?" – Pavement, "Gold Soundz".
California is finally undergoing the wave of winery closings and restructurings that have been predicted for the last few years.
Artesa in Napa was sold this week. Also, Gundlach Bundschu, less than five miles away across the Sonoma County line, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this week. This is happening as Signorello in Napa is preparing for a foreclosure sale.
But, is this yet another "more bad news for wine" story? Not necessarily.
"The news that we are going to read is worse than what's happening underneath," said Rob McMillan, executive vice president of Silicon Valley Bank's wine division. "The first thing to recognize is that not everybody is going through the same thing."
The big reason this story is not bad news is, to reiterate, Artesa was *sold*, which means there is a buyer. Not only that, that buyer is Jean-Charles Boisset, the Burgundy-born entrepreneur who is one of the most exuberant advocates of wine in California.
“In this gloomy wine world and all this negativity, we think the opposite,” Boisset told Wine Spectator. “We decided to double down and acquire something very special.”
Meanwhile, the company selling Artesa was The Carlyle Group, a US private equity firm that made an enormous bet on wine in 2018 that has not paid off. Carlyle, which built its business on buying defense contractors, stepped outside of its area of expertise. The group bought Raventos Codorniu, the Spain-based parent company of Artesa. It also bought Accolade, Australia's second-largest wine company, best known for the Hardys brand.
Its timing was awful. Carlyle must be run by smart people; I hope so, because one of its founders bought my favorite baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles, in 2024 (it must be said that the team went downhill immediately afterward, though as a fan I don't blame David Rubinstein). But Carlyle didn't know wine any more than Rubinstein knew baseball.
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