title https://www.pacbiztimes.com Proudly serving Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties Thu, 02 Nov 2023 18:52:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.2 Paso Robles vineyard sold for $1B  https://www.pacbiztimes.com/2023/11/02/paso-robles-vineyard-sold-for-1b/ Thu, 02 Nov 2023 18:52:51 +0000 https://www.pacbiztimes.com/?p=91329 Daou Vineyards, located in Paso Robles, is now a part of one of the largest deals in the region in 2023 after announcing that it would be sold to an Australian wine estate for as much as $1 billion. Owned by Georges and Daniel Daou, the vineyard was sold to Australia’s Treasury Wine Estates, one Read More →

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Daou Vineyards, located in Paso Robles, is now a part of one of the largest deals in the region in 2023 after announcing that it would be sold to an Australian wine estate for as much as $1 billion.

Owned by Georges and Daniel Daou, the vineyard was sold to Australia’s Treasury Wine Estates, one of the largest vintners in the world.

According to details of the transaction, the deal includes an initial payout of $900 million with an additional $100 million to be paid out if Daou reaches certain goals.

The acquisition also includes the Daou brand, Daou Mountain Estate and hospitality site located at 2777 Hidden Mountain Rd. in Paso Robles, four luxury wineries and around 400 acres of vineyard in the Adelaida district of Paso Robles.

The deal is expected to close at the end of 2023 with both brothers, Georges and Daniel, remaining involved in the business with Georges as founder and Daniel as founder and chief winemaker, according to the press release.

The news helps paint the importance of the Paso Robles wine scene on a much larger scale as well.

In a statement to the Business Times, Joel Peterson, executive director of the Paso Robles Wine County Allegiance, said this acquisition is “the most recent example of power and potential of this incredible wine region.”

“The national success of the DAOU brand, the experience they offer guests, and the attention they’ve helped bring to Paso Wine Country is impressive,” Peterson said.

Both brothers also hope to continue “boldly disrupting the industry” through this acquisition.

“The last frontier has always been international, and as part of the Treasury Wine Estates portfolio, we have unlocked the potential to be amongst the highest-end wines for consumers to enjoy globally,” the Dauo brothers said in a press release. 

“In Treasury Wine Estates, we have found a partner that not only understands the value of our brand and the premium assets we have cultivated but also the importance of ensuring that we maintain a relentless focus on quality and craftsmanship as we step into our future.”

Being a part of one of the largest vintners in the world will also give the region a more international presence.

“With the international focus that Treasury Wine Estates brings, it appears to be a positive development for Paso Robles, which continues to be recognized with commercial success and critical acclaim,” Peterson said.

For Treasury, this deal fills a key portfolio area in the $20 to $40 per bottle category while also strengthening its luxury portfolio which includes bottles in the $40 and up range.

Treasury Wine has a market value of $5.56 billion as of Oct. 31.

According to the press release, Daou is the fastest-growing luxury wine brand in the United States over the past year and has been recognized throughout the industry with multiple awards.

Data from Impact Databank shows that Daou expanded sales from 305,000 cases to 509,000 cases last year. The brand is most known for its Cabernet Sauvignon-based Patrimony wines.

“The U.S. is the world’s largest wine market and we’re beyond thrilled to add DAOU to our portfolio, cementing our position as a global luxury wine leader. This is a transformative acquisition that will accelerate the growth of our luxury portfolio globally and paves the way for new luxury consumer experiences,” Tim Ford, CEO of Treasury Wine Estates, said in a press release.

“We have grand plans for DAOU to become the next brand with the international scale and luxury credentials of Penfolds. With DAOU, we will be well-positioned to connect with a new generation of wine lovers, combining tradition with innovation, culture-led experiences, and global distribution.” 

TWE’s financial advisor for this transaction is PJT Partners and its legal advisor is Davis Wright Tremaine. 

Daou’s financial advisor is Centerview Partners LLC and its legal advisor is Sheppard Mullin.

email: jmercado@pacbiztimes.com 

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Wine Buzz: Wine loses its way among consumers younger than 60 https://www.pacbiztimes.com/2023/02/03/wine-buzz-wine-loses-its-way-among-consumers-younger-than-60/ Fri, 03 Feb 2023 23:33:28 +0000 https://www.pacbiztimes.com/?p=76924 This article is only available to Business Times subscribers Subscribers: LOG IN or REGISTER for complete digital access. Not a Subscriber? SUBSCRIBE for full access to our weekly newspaper, online edition and Book of Lists. Check the STATUS of your Subscription Account.

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Wine Buzz: Alma Rosa, a pioneering winery, moves into a new era https://www.pacbiztimes.com/2022/10/14/wine-buzz-alma-rosa-a-pioneering-winery-moves-into-a-new-era/ Fri, 14 Oct 2022 19:45:41 +0000 https://www.pacbiztimes.com/?p=74632 This article is only available to Business Times subscribers Subscribers: LOG IN or REGISTER for complete digital access. Not a Subscriber? SUBSCRIBE for full access to our weekly newspaper, online edition and Book of Lists. Check the STATUS of your Subscription Account.

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Region’s breweries take home barrel of medals from Great American Beer Festival https://www.pacbiztimes.com/2022/10/10/regions-breweries-take-home-barrel-of-medals-from-great-american-beer-festival/ Mon, 10 Oct 2022 22:11:44 +0000 https://www.pacbiztimes.com/?p=74582 The tri-county region’s breweries came home from the 2022 Great American Beer Festival in Denver with gold medals in five different categories and a handful of silver and bronze medals, too. The Great American Beer Festival is one of the world’s top beer competitions, and the 2022 edition ended Oct. 8. Seven breweries based in Read More →

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The tri-county region’s breweries came home from the 2022 Great American Beer Festival in Denver with gold medals in five different categories and a handful of silver and bronze medals, too.

The Great American Beer Festival is one of the world’s top beer competitions, and the 2022 edition ended Oct. 8. Seven breweries based in the Tri-Counties won medals, three of them winning two each.

Wild Fields Brewhouse in Atascadero was the biggest winner, with two gold medals. Both were for relatively malty beers, at a time when California microbrews are still generally hop-heavy: Its Pine Mountain Monolith won gold in the English-Style Brown Ale category, and its Magic Swirling Sip was the festival’s best in the Scottish-Style Ale category.

Topa Topa Brewing Co. in Ventura won gold in the English Ale category for its Level Line, though that beer is actually a classic example of an American pale ale. Topa Topa also won a silver medal in the International-Style Pilsner category, for its Dos Topas Mexican-style lager.

Another Ventura brewery, MadeWest, also took home gold, for Waxing and Waning, in the Kellerbier or Zwickelbier category. Kellerbier and zwickelbier are a German style of unfiltered lager.

Third Window Brewing Co. in Santa Barbara won gold for its Summer Saison, a French-style farmhouse ale, in the Specialty Saison category. The brewery also won bronze in the Belgian-Style Witbier category for its Third Window White.

Figueroa Mountain Brewing Co., based in Buellton, won two bronze medals: for Dreaming of Bamberg, in the Smoke Beer category; and for Hoppy Poppy IPA, in the English IPA or New Zealand IPA category. English and New Zealand styles of IPA tend to be less hop-forward and lower in alcohol than American IPAs.

Captain Fatty’s in Goleta, won silver for its Calypso cucumber sour, and three other breweries from the region won a bronze medal: Casa Agria in Oxnard, for its Eyes are Mosiac IPA; Cold Coast Brewing Co. in Lompoc, for its brown ale, Brown Evolved; and Liquid Gravity Brewing in San Luis Obispo, for its Pale From The Crypt IPA.

A judge at the 2022 Great American Beer Festival in Denver. (courtesy photo)

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Wine Buzz: An insider’s look at this year’s grape harvest https://www.pacbiztimes.com/2022/09/02/wine-buzz-an-insiders-look-at-this-years-grape-harvest/ Fri, 02 Sep 2022 20:47:48 +0000 https://www.pacbiztimes.com/?p=74060 This article is only available to Business Times subscribers Subscribers: LOG IN or REGISTER for complete digital access. Not a Subscriber? SUBSCRIBE for full access to our weekly newspaper, online edition and Book of Lists. Check the STATUS of your Subscription Account.

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Federal lawsuit accuses Justin Vineyards of years of pervasive harassment of female employees https://www.pacbiztimes.com/2022/08/29/federal-lawsuit-accuses-justin-vineyards-of-years-of-pervasive-harassment-of-female-employees/ Tue, 30 Aug 2022 00:11:06 +0000 https://www.pacbiztimes.com/?p=73991 Justin Vineyards & Winery in Paso Robles and its parent company are being sued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of female employees who say they were repeatedly sexually harassed by their male bosses. Justin is among the tri-county region’s biggest wineries, and since 2010 it has been owned by The Wonderful Read More →

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Justin Vineyards & Winery in Paso Robles and its parent company are being sued by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of female employees who say they were repeatedly sexually harassed by their male bosses.

Justin is among the tri-county region’s biggest wineries, and since 2010 it has been owned by The Wonderful Company, a Los Angeles-based firm founded by billionaires Stewart and Lynda Resnick. The Wonderful Company is one of the biggest private landowners in the San Joaquin Valley and is among the world’s leading growers of pistachios, almonds and mandarin oranges. It also owns brands including Fiji Water, Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice and Teleflora flower delivery.

On Aug. 25, the EEOC filed suit against Justin and The Wonderful Company in federal court, alleging that the winery violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects employees from discrimination based on sex, race, religion or national origin. The lawsuit was filed after an EEOC investigation determined that there was “reasonable cause to believe” the allegations are true, according to the complaint, and after the agency and The Wonderful Company were unable to reach an agreement to settle the matter out of court.

In an email to the Business Times, Rachel Ostroff, The Wonderful Company’s manager for corporate communications, said the company does not comment on matters under litigation, but “strongly denies it did anything improper and intends to defend against this filing.”

The case started when a Justin Vineyards employee opened an EEOC complaint. The resulting EEOC investigation concluded that, going back at least to 2017, numerous women who worked at Justin were “subjected to frequent, ongoing, inappropriate, unwelcome and offensive conduct of a sexual nature” by numerous male supervisors, the lawsuit states.

The supervisors’ conduct toward the women allegedly included unwanted sexual touching; indecent exposure; texting inappropriate photos; inappropriate late-night texts; and frequent sexual comments, such as calling employees “sexy” or “super hot” and discussing their outfits and undergarments. One supervisor proposed a sexual encounter to an employee, the lawsuit claims, and expressed a desire to get a divorce so that he could be with her.

The inappropriate comments and behavior often happened in front of other managers and supervisors, and Justin and The Wonderful Company “knew or should have known of the hostile environment at its worksites,” the EEOC lawsuit states. The company had verbal and written complaints from employees going back to 2017, according to the lawsuit, and did nothing to fix the problem.

In fact, the EEOC claims, the human resources department at Justin and The Wonderful Company blamed some of the accusers for their treatment and discouraged employees from reporting problems to the department.

The employees who complained also faced retaliation, according to the EEOC’s lawsuit, such as being assigned extra shifts, being investigated themselves and accused of wrongdoing, and having supervisors yell at and berate them.

The case will now proceed in federal civil court in Los Angeles. The EEOC is seeking unspecified monetary damages and court orders prohibiting Justin and The Wonderful Company from violating employment law in the future. Any money awarded in court or paid in a settlement would go to Justin employees, not the EEOC, said Rogelio Colon, an outreach and education coordinator with the agency.

“We’re not like the Department of Labor — we cannot fine or sanction an employer,” Colon said. “The employer has to agree to any settlement … and if we can’t settle, we refer charge to legal unit and they decide whether to file suit, as they have in this instance.”

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Dubroff: Iris Duplantier Rideau’s story is both timeless and as timely as ever https://www.pacbiztimes.com/2022/08/21/dubroff-iris-duplantier-rideaus-story-is-both-timeless-and-as-timely-as-ever/ Mon, 22 Aug 2022 00:57:19 +0000 https://www.pacbiztimes.com/?p=73849 The summer of 2022 has been about breakthrough stories from revered Black leaders. We learned new details about the norm-shattering role played by Nichelle Nichols, aka Star Trek’s Lt. Uhura, after she died on July 30. We relived the social justice advocacy of Boston Celtics superstar Bill Russell, who died the next day at 88. Read More →

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The summer of 2022 has been about breakthrough stories from revered Black leaders.

We learned new details about the norm-shattering role played by Nichelle Nichols, aka Star Trek’s Lt. Uhura, after she died on July 30.

We relived the social justice advocacy of Boston Celtics superstar Bill Russell, who died the next day at 88.

On the Central Coast, we have our own breakthrough leader who is telling her story this year. And she’s getting some timely recognition for her role in the wine industry.

In her new memoir, “From White to Black: One Life Between Two Worlds,” Iris Duplantier Rideau tells how a New Orleans native overcame setbacks, became a groundbreaking businesswoman in Los Angeles and founded the first winery in the United States owned by a Black woman.

Henry Dubroff
Henry Dubroff
From the Editor

Duplantier Rideau will find herself in the national spotlight in the coming months, when she is featured in a PBS television series about wine industry legends. And while she doesn’t own Rideau Vineyard anymore, she has left an indelible mark on the Central Coast.

Her path was driven by ambition, unique opportunities, and a desire to pursue her entrepreneurial dreams.

As a child in New Orleans in the 1940s, both she and her Creole grandmother could pass for white, providing a unique window into life under Jim Crow laws. Heading west by train to California as a young child to visit her father, she was treated like American royalty — a dining car with white linens, fine sleeping arrangements and attended by porters who were invariably Black.

Back in Louisiana, she witnessed prejudice and the narrowing of expectations. Like Russell, who grew up in Monroe, Louisiana before his family moved to Oakland, she never forgot the hatred. She, like the future NBA star, became part of the Great Migration, as 6 million Black citizens left the south, seeking opportunity.

But life in California was not easy. She had a turbulent relationship with her father. She married young, had a daughter, experienced domestic violence, and found the path to a career blocked.
She did find help along the way. A Jewish family that owned an insurance agency offered her a job and taught her the how to appraise properties and assess risk. In the same way that a small Catholic college, the University of San Francisco, offered Russell a scholarship to play basketball, she got to reach the first rung on the ladder toward success.

Just as Martin Luther King Jr. convinced Nichols not to leave Star Trek after one season, it was Tom Bradley, the first Black mayor of Los Angeles, who encouraged Duplantier Rideau to expand her horizons and figure out how to help neighborhoods devastated by riots get property coverage.

Duplantier Rideau’s talents were not those that get you a bio on IMDB or your number retired by the NBA. But her attention to accounting detail and her ability to focus on the bottom line, combined with Louisiana street smarts, made her one of the most successful Black businesswomen in Los Angeles. She brought insurance and financial services to deeply underserved communities.

After selling her agency, a retirement of sorts beckoned, and Duplantier Rideau, like many Angelenos, found her happy place in the Santa Ynez Valley. But she could not resist the lure of a run-down old adobe that would become the winery that brought together her love of entertaining and her passion for all things Louisiana.

“From White to Black” is a not merely a personal memoir. It is the story of the Black experience in America from the 1940s to now, told in a confident voice through the eyes of a woman who never lost sight of her dream.

In addition to the book and upcoming PBS segment, Duplantier Rideau was interviewed by Veronica Kusmuk of the Business Times for the latest episode of Charting Her Course, our monthly podcast on women entrepreneurs. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can learn more about “From White to Black” at irisrideau.com.

• Henry Dubroff is the owner and editor of the Pacific Coast Business Times. He can be reached at hdubroff@pacbiztimes.com.

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