08/08/07 Buying Into Wine

Buying into wine. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. America's first winery that rocked the wine world by beating out Bordeaux, France is being purchased by Washington State's oldest winery. Stag's Leap Winery in the Napa Valley is about to become a part of the Ste. Michelle Wine Estates. Keith Love is the communications director for Ste. Michelle. LOVE: Stag's Leap is one of the original icon wineries in the Napa Valley and Warren Winiarski had founded it and the wine he made in 1973, his first wine, won a blind taste testing in Paris in 1976 against the best French red wines. At 79, Winiarski is ready to retire and after visiting several wineries including Col Solare in Washington State, felt it was the right move to sell to Ste. Michelle. LOVE: Warren wanted to come up and visit our properties including the one we built with the Antinori's and so that sealed the deal to use his words. He went back and talked to his family and said these are people who will care for our wines and care for our company, we share their values and so we are really proud of that. There are no plans to make any changes in the way Stag's Leap makes wines and in fact a lot of wine enthusiasts are saying this is a validation of the quality of wine being produced in Washington State. LOVE: Like us they had a long storied history just like Ste. Michelle and they really focus on quality the way we do. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.