New Owners for California Pinot Noir Star Kosta Browne | Wine Spectator" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Good for those guys…I see a price increase in the near future.
Yeah, this had been in the works for some time. I heard about the sale a month ago from some winery insiders…
Kudos to Dan, Michael and Chris
It seemed like, with the investors they had, that this type of transaction was a forgone conclusion.
I’m guessing they made out big on the deal, so congrats, guys!
About time they finalized it. 
The price has already hit my pain threshold…so yet another will have me passing as I almost passed earlier this year.
Good for them. The wines were not good imo.
I wonder if the price was affected by the economy at all, or if they got tremendously lucky and kept a premium.
Wow! Is this like the biggest news to hit the wine world in the last 10 years? 
I don’t know but the number I heard being tossed about two weeks ago was 30 million. Seems they bested that by 10 million.
Good news for Dan, Michael and their team. Congrats!!
I happen to really like the wines.
DLS
Sort of amazing to think about when so many other wineries are on the verge of bankruptcy and this one sells for nearly $40million…
+1
Is this really a “sale” or just a change in investors?
Most likely the latter, but it’s still a ‘sale’, where the original investors are liquidated in their positions, and the ownership is transferred.
Michael Browne was one of the guest winemakers on an IPNC winery trip to Willakenzie several weeks ago. They served a couple of KBs during the day. Between IPNC and several other bottles I’ve tried, I honestly think the wines are well made but completely not my style…Cali Pinot on steroids. Didn’t think it was appropriate to ask Michael about his personal Pinot tastes, which I’ve heard are a bit more Burgundian. Since they’re riding such a Juggernaut of popularity with those crazy high WS ratings, I can’t blame them for maximizing their opportunities. That said, I purposefully sat close to Maxime Rion at lunch and relished some of his 06 M&P Rion NSG 1ers…and let everyone else reach for the KBs.
RT
I knew Dan Kosta way back when. He’s a real nice guy. A buddy of mine and I beat him and a good friend in the pro doubles at the Cali wine tasting championships a LONG time ago.
My question is does KB own a winery? How about vineyards?
I have not hung with the guys in a few years but I always suspected in talking to Michael that his REAL love was restaurants…even over Pinot! I wonder if one might be in his future???
This seems to be an interesting demo of the cash value of Wine Spectator scores, since the only real “asset” changing hands here is a brand and a mailing list, right? (setting aside some contract rights of relatively nominal value) $40m - wow!
+1, especially starting with 2003 vintage.