Washington’s state’s biggest wine producer is changing hands again, but this time being sold to a fellow wine company. The Washington state-based Wyckoff family has announced its purchase of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates for an undisclosed sum. Ste. Michelle was previously bought by private equity firm Sycamore Partners in 2021 for $1.2 billion. Wyckoff’s purchase includes all of Ste. Michelle’s wine brands, facilities and vineyards in Washington. The company’s Oregon brands will continue to be owned by Sycamore, with Ste. Michelle handling national sales.
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the Wyckoff family,” Court Wyckoff, CEO of Wyckoff Farms and Coventry Vale Winery told Shanken News Daily, a sister publication of Wine Spectator. “We’ve been an integral part of the Ste. Michelle family for over 40 years. We planted our first grapes in 1978, started making custom wine for Ste. Michelle in the early 1980s, and we share in the vision and the legacy of Ste. Michelle and Washington wine.”
“This is a perfect moment in time for us to return back to private Washington ownership,” said David Bowman, who serves as co-CEO of Ste. Michelle, along with Anna Mosier. “We’re in a better position, a more healthy position than we’ve been in probably a decade.”
According to Impact Databank, Ste. Michelle ranks as the 10th-largest wine marketer in the U.S. by volume at 5.3 million cases in 2024, down from 7.1 million cases in 2021.
The Wyckoff family’s business includes producing premium wine grapes, custom wines and other agriculture products in Washington, Idaho and Oregon. A partner of Ste. Michelle’s for four decades, Wyckoff is the largest custom wine producer in Washington through its Coventry Vale Winery, with vineyards in the Wahluke Slope, Yakima Valley and Horse Heaven Hills appellations. Coventry Vale’s custom winemaking business reaches beyond Washington and includes production for other domestic and international markets as well.
The Ste. Michelle portfolio is led by brands Chateau Ste. Michelle, 14 Hands, Columbia Crest, Liquid Light, Estival, Ethos, Spring Valley Vineyard, and Northstar from Washington state. Ste. Michelle will also continue as the sales agent for A to Z Wineworks, Erath and Rex Hill from Oregon, which continue to be owned by Sycamore Partners.
Ste. Michelle has been hit particularly hard by recent trends in the wine industry. It built its business through value-priced brands, which have suffered declining sales for nearly a decade.
Ste. Michelle’s time in the Sycamore portfolio saw the winery sell off some of its more premium brands, such Col Solare and Patz & Hall, and sharply reduce grape contracts in its home state of Washington. In September, former Ste. Michelle CEO Shawn Conway departed to take the same position at Napa Valley’s Far Niente Wine Estates, and Ste. Michelle split its executive duties three ways, with Bowman and Mosier serving as co-CEOs of the Washington business, while Amy Prosenjak leads the Oregon side.
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