WX Brands Issues Incomprehensible PR About Acquisition of Some (Or All?) of Jamieson Ranch Vineyards and Bread & Butter Wines

Last night, WX Brands posted a factually incomplete and structurally flawed news release — “New Acquisitions Propel WX Brands into Wine Industry Top 20.”

The release is jam-packed with incomplete statements and assertions without any sort of data or verification. The absence of actual, relevant facts puts this solidly in the ranks of “fake news.”

That news release stated that it had “added to its expanding portfolio of brands – Bread &  Butter Wines and the Jamieson Ranch Vineyards.”

Unclear just what was acquired

The release was unclear as to whether WX had bought just the brands, the brands and inventory, or all that and the winery facilities.

PR release creates misleading impression

The news release offers a bit of detail about the Jamieson Ranch property which links the land and the brands, thus giving the impression that the real estate was included in the purchase announced in the press release.

“Jamieson Ranch Vineyards is located on a historic land grant in Napa that dates back to 1850. This family of wines includes the award-winning brands Double Lariat, Reata, Whiplash and Light Horse.”

Despite the impression created that real estate was involved, colleague Paul Franson told Wine Industry Insight  he had learned that only the brands were purchased.

[UPDATE, 8:23 a.m., 04/05/17]: According to an email from Mario Zepponi, said, “WX just bought the wine brands.  No real estate was involved in either transaction.”

Timing of release evasive

The release seemed timed to prevent any of those messy questions from being asked to clarify just what was being purchased.

Further, unlike professionally structured news releases, this one lacked any contact information at WX or others involved.

[UPDATE, 8:13 a.m., 04/05/17]: Colleague  Franson forwarded the email version of the news release which did include a contact whom I have emailed: CONTACT:  Oren Lewin, SVP of Marketing & Strategy, WX, Email: oren.lewin@wineryexchange.com, Phone: 707-738-5977.

Odd that was omitted from the web version. I used to subscribe to PR Newswire email notifications, but canceled because of a spamflood of off-topic releases.

Wine Industry Insight also reached out to WX Brands, Zepponi and a number of the other players involved with those questions, but we have not received a reply.

Spin and unsupported facts = Fake News

In addition to the missing information and flawed structure, the news release boasted that: “New Acquisitions Propel WX Brands into Wine Industry Top 20.”

No credible information was provided as to the metrics to define what “Top 20” actually meant.

Professionally written news releases would define whether that was by cases or revenues and the time period involved as well as who #19 and #21 were.

The release also fails to mention what position the company was in prior to the acquisition.

And buried deep in the news release were two more bits of meaningless, generic assertions lacking any support:

“WX also owns Chronic Cellars, an up-and-coming winery from Paso Robles, CA, and Our Daily Wines, the leading brand of preservative-free wines.”

What does “up-and-coming” actually mean? This is a self-congratulatory statement which absolutely lacks credibility in an attempt to boost perception in the absence of facts. What metrics are used in that measure?

And, if something is actually, “the leading brand” then where is the data? Who is #2? What metrics are used in that measure?

The complete news release is presented below.