It is a portfolio of mediocrity, the best you can say about it is that “it’s fine” or “I haven’t had that in awhile”. Not a single one of those is a layup for the average On Premise operator by the glass and if that is the case it is generally exponential as it relates to Retail.
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Back in the day (the 1990s) I drank a lot of Clos Pegase and B.R. Cohn wines. They were very good.
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I would be curious to know how many of these brands are still based on original facilities and fruit sourcing. Lot of middle-aged brands that might just be a name on a shiner at this point.
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Sorry, I honestly don’t know the answer to that very fair assumption. But, based on following them post-IPO, I think the strategy was indeed a rollup of brands and consolidating production. The successor management team to the Founder was more focused on brands rather than operations, it seemed.
The stock buyback program in 2022 probably didn’t help either…
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Cherry Pie Three Vineyards used to be $12 BTG, which was a great value and could have been the PN BTG in many accounts around US.
Tamarack Firehouse Red, Firesteed PN, Kunde Zin, Clos Pegase SB, and some of the Owen Roe wines could find homes. There were a ton of wines for BTG…again there wasn’t a La Marca, KJ VR Chard, etc…that was BTG in a big % of accounts so every BTG was a fight.
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I’ve enjoyed Kunde. I bought a new hundred shares of the stock hoping they could turn it around. Oh well…
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I don’t think the wines themselves are the issue, but more their go to market strategy, which for On Premise seemed to be non existent. I sold BR Cohn for years and it was a go to Cab at that $12 price because it over delivered, but no one ever came to our sales meetings, wrote incentives, or programmed anything. Selling their stuff OP was more opportunistic.
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just curious have you looked at their public financials?
this says a lot…
They were projecting $80 mm of EBITDA for 2023. (can’t believe UW counsel signed off on that 
) For the 9 months ending FY24 they were at negative $37 mm. And clearly acquisitions were a big part of their strategy.
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And Qupe isn’t really the Qupe of days gone by anyway
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Obviously
Turley made wine at Cohn. I think 1984?
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There was a lot of talk about them buying Mondavi and potentially Woodbridge which would have given them 2 anchor brands that likely would have made a huge difference.
There will be more of this, unfortunately.
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If anyone sees 209 getting blown out, hit me up
Ian,. Helen’s 1984 BR Cohn Gold Label Cab was excellent, the Silver Label not so much.
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Is it good? Flavor profile?
Juniper aromatics , citrus cut, very clean. I’m not a huge gin drinker but I like this one a lot and if it was going away, I’d put more than a few away at the right price
The portfolio is a real mish-mash. The supermarket brands (Middle Sister, Layer Cake) get buried by Gallo, Constellation, KJ, Treasury. Cohn, Cosentino, Girard, Firesteed, Owen Roe… all of them had their moments, none of them were able to maintain momentum.
I still have some older Girard Cabs in the basement, high quality, excellent value. I hope the people who work for Girard and the other good mid-range brands are able to keep their jobs and keep producing quality wines.
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Like Brian said, the part that hurts is really the impacts on the people who work there. Those impacts have been felt for some time now. As far as I can tell from talking to people who work or have worked there, VWE has been in a bad way and an organizational mess for several years. That’s an unpleasant environment for a prolonged time for a lot of people.
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Good thing there are pages-long disclosures on forward-looking statements and use of projections in every OM and pitch deck, though.
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