Hilliard Bruce winery for sale; Terravant Wine Company gets $40 million in capital; Grassini Family Vineyards will donate proceeds from Sunday event
December 6, 2018 | 2:30 pm
Hilliard Bruce, an LEED and SIP certified vineyard and winery in the Sta. Rita Hills, has been listed for sale for $14.95 million.
The estate is offered by Kerry Mormann & Associates and shared with Joe Ramos of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, Ramos said.
The property includes 101 acres, of which 21 are planted with pinot noir and chardonnay wine grapes.
The 15,000 square-foot gravity-flow winery was designed by Daniel Lee of the architectural firm BJC — known for creating Apple stores and Bill and Melinda Gates’ residence on Lake Washington.
“Do you want to plant more grapes? There’s space for it. Do you want to build another home? There’s space for it. There’s plenty of room to personalize it.”
Terravant secures $40 million capital investment
Buellton’s Terravant Wine Company announced Dec. 3 that it has received $40 million in “re-capitalization” from Raven Capital Management, according to a news release.
Terravant is Santa Barbara County’s largest winery and the most state-of-the-art winemaking and bottling facility on the Central Coast and this year celebrated its 10th anniversary.
Paul Griswold, chairman of the board and CEO, recently joined the company as a 40-year veteran in the beverage and packaged goods industry, including participation in the senior leadership team at Pepsi.
“With this funding, along with recent changes and additions to our senior management team, we will be able to continue to produce quality wines from Santa Barbara County while ensuring the elimination of our past issues and continuing to build strong relationships with all of our business partners,”
he said in a statement.
Terravant will continue to invest in custom winemaking and private labels at its state-of-the-art facility, where clients can choose between existing shiners, traditional 750 ml packaging formats, or cans and kegs, which continue to grow in popularity in the marketplace, according to the release.
Included in the expansion plans are the national brands, among them Insomnia, Flavorbomb and Terravant’s newest offering, King Chancho, as well as the ultra-premium brands, Summerland Central Coast Collection, Terravant and Australian import, Tomich Wines.
Grassini Family to match donations at Dec. 9 event
During the past six years, the Grassini family, owner of Grassini Family Vineyards in the Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara AVA, has raised nearly $142,000 for local nonprofit organizations at its annual Grassini Gives Back wine event, held every holiday season.
This year, the event will take place from noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 9, and support Storyteller Children’s Center, a Santa Barbara year-round therapeutic preschool for homeless and disadvantaged toddlers and preschoolers who have experienced severe trauma. The center has been helping at-risk children for 30 years.
On Sunday, the public is invited to visit Grassini’s tasting room in the historic El Paseo building and enjoy a special flight or a glass of wine and hors d’oeuvres.
One hundred percent of the day’s wine tasting fees, as well as proceeds from a silent auction and raffle ticket sales, will be donated to Storyteller, said Katie Grassini, CEO of Grassini Family Vineyards.
To further boost the beneficiary, the Grassini family will match all of the days’ proceeds, she noted.
“My family and I understand how fortunate we are to have our tasting room in such a beautiful town, and we welcome every opportunity to give back to the local community,”
Grassini said.
Grassini Family Vineyards tasting room is located at 24 El Paseo in Santa Barbara. Admission is free to the event and a tasting flight costs $20.
— Laurie Jervis blogs about wine at www.centralcoastwinepress.com, tweets at @lauriejervis and can be reached via [email protected]. The opinions expressed are her own.
