Beringer and Penfolds owner Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) is to streamline its winemaking operations in California as part of plans to integrate the businesses bought from Diageo last year for US$600m.
The company said it would consolidate winemaking production in California in the Central and North Coast regions, with the Beringer winery focusing on luxury wine production, and the Paso Robles winery taking charge of the ‘masstige’ segment.
Winemaking will be discontinued at the Chateau St Jean winery in Sonoma, with production moving to Beringer, although hospitality and cellar door operations will remain on the site.
TWE will sell its Paicines winery on the Central Coast, moving production to Paso Robles, and will also sell ‘a small number’ of vineyards and land holdings.
Luxury winemaking will be consolidated at Sterling Vineyards, while Beaulieu Vineyard will be focused on luxury winemaking only, TWE added.
The company also committed itself to unspecified additional investment in its US wineries between vintages 2016 and 2018, designed ‘to support its growth agenda for premium American wines in the Asia region’.
TWE declined to specify how many jobs would be lost with the reorganisation, saying only that ‘a number of roles’ would be affected, although some of these might be transferred to new owners.
It expects the re-organisation to be complete by the end of the 2018 fiscal year.
TWE paid a total of $600m for Diageo’s US and UK wine operations in October last year, including brands such as Sterling Vineyards, Beaulieu Vineyards and Blossom Hill.
