A growing California Central Coast wine company has purchased a 149-year-old Sonoma County brand after it had changed hands just seven months earlier.
WarRoom Cellars said the Simi Winery acquisition fits its model of accelerating growth for legacy names in a consolidating California wine market.
“WarRoom has a proven and repeatable process to revitalize heritage wine brands by honoring where they come from while bringing a fresh relevance that resonates with today’s consumers. With every acquisition, we elevate the brand to deliver stronger velocity, real growth, and a renewed confidence distributors can count on,” said President Andrew Nelson in the announcement Friday.
East Bay-based The Wine Group, one of the nation’s largest vintners, had purchased the Simi label and its Healdsburg winery from Constellation Brands as part of an early June sale of lower-priced wines that netted $900 million, the Journal reported. Details of the Simi sale weren’t disclosed.
“The sale supports The Wine Group’s continuous focus on aligning our portfolio to current and long-term goals. We look forward to watching Simi’s success in WarRoom’s very capable hands,” said John Sutton, CEO of Livermore-based The Wine Group.
The Wine Group produces over 120 brands, ranging from Sonoma Valley-based Benziger, Imagery and Tributet to mass-market Cupcake. The Livermore company said the Constellation portfolio deal would diversify its portfolio with “additional on-premise volume, an expanded retail presence, new in-house operational capabilities.”
In the June deal, The Wine Group also purchased Sonoma County-founded Meoimi, two brands connected to the Napa Valley legacy of the late pioneer Robert Mondavi (Woodbridge and Robert Mondavi Private Selection), Cook’s and J. Rogét sparkling wines, two related California wineries and about 6,600 acres of vineyards.
Simi was started in 1876 in San Francisco by brothers Giuseppe and Pietro Simi, who had immigrated from Tuscany, Italy, during the Gold Rush, according to the winery’s history. They moved it to Healdsburg in 1881. The Simi family sold it to wine grape grower Russell Green in 1970. Green sold it in 1981 to Moët-Hennessy, now LVMH, which sold it to the predecessor of Constellation in 1999.
Simi is one of the few California wine brands to have operated continuously since the 19th century, notably navigating Prohibition through bulk and sacramental wine sales.
Overseeing winemaking for the brand under its new ownership will be WarRoom Cellars Director of Winemaking Nicole Walsh.
Santa Margarita-based WarRoom started in 2018, and its team has described themselves as “masters of guerilla winefare,” acquiring legacy — or “heritage” — brands then taking them to a new level.
Its first acquisition was in 2018 of Lapis Luna, North Coast Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Zinfandel wines largely from Mendocino County. After that came Central Coast-focused Bonny Doon in 2019; Sonoma County unoaked Chardonnay brand Toad Hollow Vineyards in 2023; Lyeth Estate, Lockwood Vineyard, Joliesse, 7 Peaks and American Vintage from Boisset Collection in spring of last year; and Parducci Wine Cellars, True Grit and Paul Dolan Vineyards from Mendocino Wine Company that fall.
WarRoom handles wine production and marketing for Total Beverage Solution’s brands, and the South Carolina-based company manages sales and distribution. Total Beverage Solution just over a year ago purchased the Layer Cake, Cartlidge & Browne and Tamarack Cellars for $6 million from the Vintage Wine Estates bankruptcy.
BMO Capital Markets was the adviser on the latest Simi acquisition.
Jeff Quackenbush joined North Bay Business Journal in May 1999. He covers primarily wine, construction and real estate. Reach him at jeff@nbbj.news or 707-521-4256.
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