The Big Wine Stories of 2024

It's the end of the year (OMG, another one?) so let's see what the big news was from 2024 in Sonoma County and the rest of California wine.

BottleRock, Memorial Day weekend, 2024

The Big Story

The grape glut is what everyone is talking about, and it's not just a Napa/Sonoma thing. It's actually worldwide. There are plenty of news articles about this, and many make it seem like The End of Times; it's not. It's the cyclical wine business doing its thing. Usually, downturns in the wine biz happen with recessions. This time it's inflation.

Business Dealings

Vintage Wine Estates, a local publicly traded company that owned many wineries and wine labels, suddenly declared bankruptcy, delisted from the stock exchange, laid off everybody, and sold most of its holdings. Article: VWE selloff.

Napa's Duckhorn Portfolio (Duckhorn, Decoy, Golden Eye, others) buys Sonoma-Cutrer Winery. As their stock continues its downward trend, they sell to a private equity firm. Often PE ownership means mediocre products (see Stellantis, owners of Jeep/Ram/Chrysler). In this case, Butterfly, the company buying Duckhorn, has an interesting list of investments.

Some good news in that several corporate-type wineries were bought back by the original owners in Sonoma County. These are McPhail Family Wines, Patz & Hall Winery, and VML/Truett Hurst. In other parts of the state, Qupe was bought by a local winemaker, and Concannon is in local hands now.

Pinot Noir is hot, and there were a couple notable purchases this year. Constellation Brands acquired premium producer Sea Smoke of Sta. Rita Hills in Santa Barbara County. A French Burgundy company bought majority interest in Sonoma's famous Pinot house Williams Selyem Winery. Pinot Noir is the second most planted grape in Sonoma County, Chardonnay is first. Pinot is the most valuable grape crop with an estimated value of $214 million out of a total grape crop value of $716 million (from 2023 Sonoma County Crop Report).

Vintage Wine Estates 5-year stock performance

Winery Closures

After three decades in Sonoma County, the owners of Carlisle Winery and their highly-regarded Zinfandel will be no more. Yes, Carlisle isn't someone most people know about and Zinfandel isn't everyone's favorite wine, but they have a loyal following that will miss them. Article: Carlisle Winery closing after 2024 vintage.

Sonoma County's Sbragia Winery, owned by Ed Sbragia, a Beringer winemaker, closed its doors. It was originally Lake Sonoma Winery under previous owners. It is in a remote location and has a difficult time bringing in visitors and events. 

Tapron Cellars of Napa closed a year after the Forbes article "Tapron Cellars Has Found Success by Embracing a New Generation of Wine Drinkers." Oops.

Terra D'Oro, a landmark Amador County winery owned by Trinchero of Napa, abruptly closed its doors. Originally named Montevina, it was the first post-Prohibition winery opened in this Sierra Foothills region.

Legal Proceedings

Three small wineries, Hoopes, Smith-Madrone, and Summit Lake, filed suit against Napa County, citing government overreach in their rules and regulations of wine tastings. They lost in county court and have filed a federal suit for a violation of their rights. Or, as some have said, Napa is trying to prove you have a Constitutional right to drink wine! Article: County wins compliance case.

The Harvest

The 2024 harvest went well as there have been no major complaints. People were happy to have little rain and no wildfire smoke to deal with. The growing season had an abnormal amount of heat, so we'll see how that works out in the bottle.

Chardonnay harvest in the wee hours
image from pressdemocrat.com