Wine Industry Finance
by Gabriel FroymovichWine Industry Finance
March 2017Should Growers Make Bulk Wine?
Much attention has been paid recently to wine producers acquiring vineyards to secure affordable, quality supply as grape prices rise. Less discussion has focused on growers who see this rise in profits as a way to invest in themselves by diversifying into wine production. This perennial question, “To crush or not to crush?” and its sister question, “Bulk or branded?” are often answered with an intuitive decision. This article will use data to examine the decision to sell bulk wine, while an upcoming issue of Wines & Vines will include a column focusing on wine brands.
Profiting from bulk wine sales
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Wine Industry Finance
September 2016Debt
What are you seeing in terms of real estate values and the size (and types) of winery construction projects happening?
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Wine Industry Finance
September 2015How Wineries Use SBA Loans
Folktale Winery & Vineyard used an SBA loan to grow their business.Finding the capital for expansion can be tough for smaller wineries, vineyards and wine-related businesses. Despite the wine industry’s recovery back to pre-recession profitability, many banks shy away from complex, cyclical, commodity-driven businesses like wine.
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Wine Industry Finance
September 2015What Finance Insiders Think
We asked our panel of finance experts what’s been happening in the wine industry during the past year. Here’s what they had to say about:
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Wine Industry Finance
September 2014What Finance Insiders Think
DEBT
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Wine Industry Finance
September 2014David Freed Reflects on Silverado's Success
David Freed is the chairman emeritus of two Napa Valley-based firms that own 10,000 acres of vineyards and sell to 100 wineries.David Freed is the chairman emeritus of two Napa Valley-based firms that own 10,000 acres of vineyards and sell to 100 wineries.
Long the public face of Silverado Wine Growers and Silverado Premium Properties, David Freed is now chairman emeritus of the companies, two of the most successful vineyard investment firms in the business. With more than 10,000 acres of vineyards in California, the two companies sell grapes to more than 100 wineries.
Freed hasn’t talked much about the business, however. “Institutions prefer low visibility,” he admitted.
As Freed transitions out of management, however, Wines & Vines interviewed him to find out more about the company. He remained reticent about numbers but explained why the firms have been so successful when a number of other highly visible vineyard investment firms failed.
The history
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Wine Industry Finance
September 2014Investor Interview: Charles Banks
Charles Banks Photo by Fred LyonCharles Banks, the founder and managing partner of Terroir Capital, which invests in wineries and hotels around the world, is known to many as the former owner of Screaming Eagle Winery in the Napa Valley. But since selling Screaming Eagle and Santa Barbara County-based Jonata to business partner Stan Kroenke in 2009, Banks has been busy investing in wine ventures in California, South Africa and New Zealand.
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Wine Industry Finance
September 2013Bacchus Capital, Unorthodox Financiers
Sam Bronfman completed his two-year stint at Diageo in 2004, after the wine and spirits behemoth acquired Seagram, the business his grandfather founded and his family had run for three generations. He set out to find a winery or wineries to buy, to return to the industry where he had spent his professional life. This turned out to be far more difficult than he had expected.READ MORE »
Wine Industry Finance
September 2013The Price of Prestige
If you’ve seen the prices that some Napa Valley vineyards have sold for, you may be aghast. But the prices of prime grapegrowing property in Bordeaux and Burgundy, France, are even more staggering.READ MORE »
Wine Industry Finance
September 2013What Finance Insiders Think
This year Wines & Vines surveyed six of the most knowledgeable executives in North American wine industry finance about the past year and what’s ahead. These banking veterans weighed in on the availability of credit, supply and demand, risk, interest rates and investment potential in areas from real estate to vineyard development to private equity.READ MORE »