Italy’s Marchesi Antinori has completed the buyout of Ste Michelle Wine Estates for the jointly-owned Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars business in California.
The transaction, for an undisclosed fee, has been completed this week and brings to a close the “16-year collaboration” between the two companies. The news comes almost a year after Ste Michelle, which is owned by private equity group Sycamore Partners, purchased A to Z Wineworks in Oregon.
The Antinori family claims to be the only Italian wine producer to own a winery in California’s Napa Valley and has been present in the region in one form or another since 1985.
“Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars produces renowned Cabernet Sauvignon from its historic Stags Leap District estate vineyards,” the company said. “Founded in 1970, the winery brought international recognition to California winemaking and the Napa Valley when the 1973 SLV Cabernet Sauvignon won the now-famous 1976 Paris Tasting, also known as the ‘”‘Judgment of Paris’.”
Late last month, Californian peer Jackson Family Wines outlined plans to buy vineyard land in the southeast of the UK.
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