Montelena sold to Cos

That sounds like good news. Glad it was NOT Constellation or any of the huge wine conglomerates.

The news first broke on eRobertParker, on the bulletin board. Decanter is just reporting the story now:

That *is* interesting news, Mark. Thanks for passing it along (I only try to wade through the crap at eBob on rare occasions). I agree that, from what I know, this is probably about the best that could be hoped for at Montelena given the fact that the Barretts were selling. It also sounds as if, at least in the short term, Jim Barrett will keep making the wines (a good thing IMO).

Mark Lipton

If recent Cos d'Estournel pricing is a clue,I guess I've bought my last Montelena!

DaleW wrote

Dale,

for sure, Cos pricing is behind this purchase. Les Chateaux Bordeleaises are charging so much for their wines and, in the last three years, have profited so highly of second, third, fourth and subsequent tranches of en primeur*, that they do have huge amounts of cash that they desperately need to employ in whatever helps avoid paying the French taxes on profits.

• A few years ago, the negoce purchased very big lots of wines en primeur and earned big profits in big vintages when the en primeur price changed quickly responding to increasing demand. Nowadays, the big Chateaux are selling very tiny amount of wines on each tranche and earning the profits associated with demand pressures (and, in fact, creating this preasures by releasing very small amounts).

Best,

santiago

I hope this purchase will not bode poorly for Montelena but so far, many of the established wineries in CA that have been bought out have seen a significant drop in quality as the parent company tries to squeeze every penny of profit from it.

That is why I am Glad it was not purchased by a multi billion dollar conglomerate like Constallation that owns Mondavi, Franciscan and so many others....I agree, a tendancy if public owned to regard profit over quality.

See partial list of Constellation brands below on link: