Kirkland Ranch Winery Up For Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Nov 15th 2008 at 8:02AM

If you are in the market for a winery, we've got one for you and you could get it for half price. The Kirkland Ranch Winery in Napa Valley is being put up for sealed-bid auction, with a minimum bid of $22 million. International Wine Associates, which is a financial adviser to owner Kirkland Knightsbridge LLC, says that is "less than half of the previous value" of the property. The winery has been on the market for a while but due to the credit crunch has been unable to find a buyer.

It's been a long road for this producer of Sangiovese, Pinot Grigio, Syrah and other wines. The winery filed Chapter 11 a couple of years ago to avoid a foreclosure auction and emerged from bankruptcy protection last year. The Kirkland family built the 57,000-square-foot winery ten years ago and it can process 200,000 gallons of wine annually and has the capability to produce more than twice that. The cellar has storage for 3,000 oak barrels. The winery can crush up to 2500 tons and handle 257,000 gallons in refrigerated stainless steel tanks.

The winery is located on a historic 2500+ acre cattle ranch that was originally part of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo's huge Suscol Rancho. The Kirklands purchased the former Lynch Ranch and the neighboring Sheehy Ranch in 1978 to create the Kirkland Ranch and raised cattle on the ranch until 1999. In 1985, a test vineyard was planted and the family eventually expanded their vineyards to 150 gently sloping acres of vineyards, while continuing to raise cattle.

The winery itself is a lodge-style building which is supported by 67 giant Oregon Red cedars that run along a wide porch surrounding three sides of the building. The lower floor has a retail room where guests can shop the exclusive selection of reserve wines. The second floor is home to a ttasting room opens to a large porch and the three story tasting room is supported by the largest of the red cedar trunks. A viewing hall, adjacent to the tasting room, overlooks all areas of the cellar and provides a safe location for visitors to view all phases of the wine making process. The winery has hosted retail sales and public tastings by appointment and hosted events at banquet and meeting facilities.

The winery is being auctioned through Braun Auctioneers and the Beverly Group Inc. Potential bidders will have until December 2 to conduct due diligence before purchase and sealed bids are due by noon on December 3.

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