Vintage Wine Estates Buys Weibel’s Hopland Facility, Will Rename it Ray’s Station

Vintage Wine Estates has purchased Weibel’s Hopland production facility and 24 acres of vineyards according to Vintner Pat Roney. He said that VWE is set to produce 400,000 cases at the winery commencing with the 2012 Crush. The facility will be renamed Ray’s Station.

In addition, Roney said VWE would “phase out of the Grove Street Winery and look for another winery to replace it at that facility.” VWE will continue to make wine at its other production facilities including Girard Winery and Cosentino Winery, he said.

“This purchase will allow us to continue our expansion plans and help us transition from the Grove Street Winery in Healdsburg that we have outgrown. We intend to refurbish and modernize the winery by adding a state of the art bottling line and adding fermentation capacity geared toward smaller lot wine making” said Roney. “We will also and convert the Ray’s Station brand to a Mendocino County AVA”.

Roney said that Weibel will  still crush grapes at the winery as a custom crush client of VW

The Weibel Winery in Hopland originally started as the McDowell Valley Winery and later became a custom crush facility for AVG and then the home for Chateau St. Michelle’s sparkling wine program before it was ultimately purchased by Weibel.

The wine industry mergers and acquisitions firm of Zepponi & Company served as the financial advisor to Weibel Family Vineyards & Winery. The financial terms of this transaction were not disclosed.

VWE is a premier wine marketing company based in Santa Rosa, California that owns Girard Winery, Cosentino Winery, Windsor Sonoma Winery, Sonoma Coast Vineyards, Windsor Vineyards, Cartlidge & Browne, Grove Street Winery, Ray’s Station, La Tarasque and Flirt.