Wine Industry Finance

 

Wine Industry Finance

 

March 2017

 

Should 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

 

READ MORE »

 

 

Wine Industry Finance

 

September 2016

 

Debt

 

What are you seeing in terms of real estate values and the size (and types) of winery construction projects happening?

 

READ MORE »

 

 

Wine Industry Finance

 

September 2015

 

How 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.

 

READ MORE »

 

 

Wine Industry Finance

 

September 2015

 

What 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:

 

READ MORE »

 

 

Wine Industry Finance

 

September 2014

 

What Finance Insiders Think

 

DEBT

 

READ MORE »

 

 

Wine Industry Finance

 

September 2014

 

David 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

 

READ MORE »

 

 

Wine Industry Finance

 

September 2014

 

Investor Interview: Charles Banks

 

 

Charles Banks Photo by Fred Lyon

Charles 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.

 

READ MORE »

 

 

Wine Industry Finance

 

September 2013

 

Bacchus 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 2013

 

The 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 2013

 

What 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 »