Owner of Justin Winery Purchases Lewis Cellars in Napa

[R_Frankel]

In the big picture, I don’t think there is any strong quality or stylistic correlation between wineries with estate fruit and wineries purchasing grapes. At least not in the new world.

Most notably, when you have a winery you like and some of their offerings are estate and others are not, I don’t find that the estate ones are always or usually better, at least not compared to other SVD offerings of theirs at similar price points. For example, Carlisle owns a vineyard, but I don’t think that one stands out as being clearly better than their many wines from other vineyards. Same for Williams Selyem.

Chris, I feel the same way about new world wineries. Littorai is another example where I don’t prefer the wines made from owned vineyards vs. non-owned.

But in Europe the balance seems different. Though I can think of many exceptions, for the most part my preferred offerings are estate bottlings. In France (Burgundy/Bordeaux/Rhone) I lean heavily towards estate crus, or at least ones in which the wine maker has a very long term contract on the vineyard, so has responsibility for the farming. Italy and Germany seem even more biased towards estate-owned wineries among the high end craft producers.

[John_Oglesby]

Lewis is a really interesting kind of Napa Brand/Winery. Owns no vineyards, has a long track record of making plush oaky Napa cabs. Not a darling of geeks like us, and either ignored or reviewed moderately by the likes of Vinous or WA. Mainstream pubs like Wine Spectator love the stuff. Reading through reviews on CT, Lewis seems adored by people who like the flavor of oak and chocolate (no irony intended).

The wines don’t appeal to me but I’m really curious about this kind of business in Napa. There must be many wineries that own no vineyards, but have built a business and brand with many dedicated customers. Does it have a future? For Wonderful/Justin it’s a way to buy into Napa relatively cheaply I’m guessing. And the Cabs/Chards/Merlots probably make a good portfolio addition to the distribution deals they have or want to have.

For Napa Berserkers tend to favor wine makers who own their own land, but there are plenty of board darlings, or at least, board respected, who don’t. What do people think of this kind of winery? What are the best examples of this kind of negociant/visitor center?

Tony Soter owned no vineyards. All he had was a brand in Etude.
Kosta Browne was also just a brand the first time they sold. The Lewis Cellars location is also the old location of Etude.

On the big business side there is the belief from some to not own any physical assets. Its all about the IP.

[Rich_Brown]

Lewis is a really interesting kind of Napa Brand/Winery. Owns no vineyards, has a long track record of making plush oaky Napa cabs. Not a darling of geeks like us, and either ignored or reviewed moderately by the likes of Vinous or WA. Mainstream pubs like Wine Spectator love the stuff. Reading through reviews on CT, Lewis seems adored by people who like the flavor of oak and chocolate (no irony intended).

The wines don’t appeal to me but I’m really curious about this kind of business in Napa. There must be many wineries that own no vineyards, but have built a business and brand with many dedicated customers. Does it have a future? For Wonderful/Justin it’s a way to buy into Napa relatively cheaply I’m guessing. And the Cabs/Chards/Merlots probably make a good portfolio addition to the distribution deals they have or want to have.

For Napa Berserkers tend to favor wine makers who own their own land, but there are plenty of board darlings, or at least, board respected, who don’t. What do people think of this kind of winery? What are the best examples of this kind of negociant/visitor center?

Tony Soter owned no vineyards. All he had was a brand in Etude.
Kosta Browne was also just a brand the first time they sold. The Lewis Cellars location is also the old location of Etude.

On the big business side there is the belief from some to not own any physical assets. Its all about the IP.

Prob the best example of this is Meiomi. Didn’t own a single Vineyard and the Wagner kid sold the brand for how many hundreds of millions?? Not a wine for most Berserkers obviously…but a helluva business case for not owning your own land if your goal is to make $$$.

[John_Glas]

Lewis is a really interesting kind of Napa Brand/Winery. Owns no vineyards, has a long track record of making plush oaky Napa cabs. Not a darling of geeks like us, and either ignored or reviewed moderately by the likes of Vinous or WA. Mainstream pubs like Wine Spectator love the stuff. Reading through reviews on CT, Lewis seems adored by people who like the flavor of oak and chocolate (no irony intended).

The wines don’t appeal to me but I’m really curious about this kind of business in Napa. There must be many wineries that own no vineyards, but have built a business and brand with many dedicated customers. Does it have a future? For Wonderful/Justin it’s a way to buy into Napa relatively cheaply I’m guessing. And the Cabs/Chards/Merlots probably make a good portfolio addition to the distribution deals they have or want to have.

For Napa Berserkers tend to favor wine makers who own their own land, but there are plenty of board darlings, or at least, board respected, who don’t. What do people think of this kind of winery? What are the best examples of this kind of negociant/visitor center?

Tony Soter owned no vineyards. All he had was a brand in Etude.
Kosta Browne was also just a brand the first time they sold. The Lewis Cellars location is also the old location of Etude.

On the big business side there is the belief from some to not own any physical assets. Its all about the IP.

Prob the best example of this is Meiomi. Didn’t own a single Vineyard and the Wagner kid sold the brand for how many hundreds of millions?? Not a wine for most Berserkers obviously…but a helluva business case for not owning your own land if your goal is to make $$$.

Rich paging posts 7, 8 and 9.

[Rich_Brown]

Tony Soter owned no vineyards. All he had was a brand in Etude.
Kosta Browne was also just a brand the first time they sold. The Lewis Cellars location is also the old location of Etude.

On the big business side there is the belief from some to not own any physical assets. Its all about the IP.

Prob the best example of this is Meiomi. Didn’t own a single Vineyard and the Wagner kid sold the brand for how many hundreds of millions?? Not a wine for most Berserkers obviously…but a helluva business case for not owning your own land if your goal is to make $$$.

Rich paging posts 7, 8 and 9.

Ha! Would you believe that I read ‘most’ of the posts in this thread??

[Mel_Knox]

I’ve always felt the reason for not owning vineyards–from the winery’s POV–is that very few have the money to do everything, own and operate vineyards, winery, etc.
It’s as though the grapes were a hot potato. First the grape grower turns the spud over to the winery, which, if all goes well, pays sometime the next year. Then the winery makes and bottles the wine and puts the wine into somebody’s warehouse. Then the hot potato goes from a distributor to a retailer or restaurant and finally to the end consumer.

[Adam_Frisch]

A lot of wineries wouldn’t be in business if they also had to grow the grapes. Plus, we’d get a lot more uninteresting wines, I think. Part of the excitement of buying grapes and working with farmers is that you can try what fits your winemaking style, or experiment. And you can also shift gear much quicker when demands change.

Thank god for farmers, because the vines would all die a horrible death if this city boy tried to farm them. Although I did sign a lease on a very small vineyard this year, I was self aware enough to hire the farming out immediately!