Eric Hickey & partners buy Laetitia.
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Laetitia and Owen Roe were both purchased by a group headed by Ejnar Knudsen. The original winemakers, Eric Hickey and David O’Reilly are go forward Partners in their respective wineries.
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Looks like Andrew Murray has snatched up Qupe.
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Sounds like he bought the Qupe brand and some wines in barrel/tank. Vintage pretty much turned it into a purveyor of supermarket type wines, we’ll see what he does with it. It also appears that he paid a bargain price, one report is $500k (details not released but apparently some info available through the bankruptcy proceedings).
-Al
I think the price will have to be disclosed when the sale comes up for bankruptcy court approval.
Yes, I think it will be disclosed at least at some level. I think the info cited so far came from bids that were disclosed.
-Al
More color on these deals here: https://www.northwestwinereport.com/2024/10/owen-roe-founders-buy-back-winery.html
Looks like the Qupe purchase includes some older vintages of bottled wine, so maybe there are still some of the smaller volume bottlings.
-Al
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Good thing for Qupe, I think.
Qupe didn’t really exist as a separate entity after Bob Lindquist left, just a reduced (number of wines) being made at Laetitia. Andrew Murray can potentially make it into something more although will continue the focus on the Block Y Chardonnay and Central Coast Syrah higher volume bottlings.
-Al
I’ve always like Qupe wines. They’ve been QPRs for sure. Tonight I’m opening a magnum of 2012 Syrah.
I always liked them, too. But I haven’t had any made by new winemaker in a different facility. But I expect Andrew Murray will turn out quality wines going forward.
-Al
Was in the Owen Roe club for a while. Stopped about 5 years ago and still have several bottles.
Wine Spectator notes they were part of a purchase by Enjar Knudson, an investor.
Received an email from Owen Roe that:
We’re overjoyed to reconnect with you. This October, the O’Reilly family reclaimed ownership of Owen Roe, bringing our journey full circle. We’re more dedicated than ever to crafting wines that embody the land we love. We’re beyond excited to continue our story with you by our side.
I’ll be interested to see what happens as they were one of the catalysts for me to explore the wines of the Northwest.
The financial duress of VWE has led to slow moving prior releases hitting the bargain racks in my region, so I tried the the 2018 Laetitia ‘Limite’ Pinot Noir [Santa Barbara] over a couple of nights. It’s screwcapped, lighter bodied and in our modern world - fresh - at 13.9% abv, with a good midweek, commercial/friendly/popular style to it. It was raised in French oak, mostly older, but I found a touch of coconut on it, which folds in with the rest the flavors well. Those include raspberries, cinnamon, cider mulling spices. The label seems a bit cagey about the grapes: the back label just notes that they grown their own, so maybe it’s not estate vineyards, and this is NOT the estate Arroyo Grande bottling, but the overall package is very solid. These are running $8 to $10 in my area, and I’d give it an easy B to B+ rating, tilting toward the latter if one is not super PN snobby. The back label is quite detailed, but this is already 4 years from release, so if one sees any, just drink up.
I hope Eric Hickey’s new venture works out well. Clearly there is some potential quality here.
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Wow - ten bucks for a good Pinot? That’s a stupid bargain.
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Yeah, I’m not a big CA pinot drinker, but I’d still buy a good amount at <$10. I’ve been keeping an eye out for Laetitia closeouts at a couple of places locally (in SLO), but I haven’t seen any. Their sparkling rosé is still well stocked at the normal price at our Costco.
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I’m surprised the ATF approved this label referring to their growing fruit, since the “Produced and Bottled By” implies that it’s not estate fruit. The first part is definitely misleading.
But I guess the bankruptcy eliminates any liability for that.
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I think the whole blurb about ‘control quality’ is basically saying it’s contract grapes. Like I said the label seemed cagey to me. But the end product quality/value is good.
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how are any of these phrases incompatible? there is nothing that says estate and growing fruit is vague, go out there and kick around some dirt and now you’ve helped the vines grow.
“Grown, Produced and Bottled” is the approved label term for estate-grown fruit. Saying that they grow their own fruit strongly suggests this is an estate wine, which is plainly must not be or they’d have used the GP&B terminology.
Given how fussy the ATF can be about labels, I’m a bit surprised this was approved.
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