Australian wine company buys Frank Family Vineyards in Calistoga for $315 million

The Australian wine company Treasury Wine Estates announced Wednesday that it has bought the Frank Family Vineyards in Calistoga for $315 million as it continues to shift its portfolio into more premium brands.

The deal includes the winery tasting room at Larkmead Lane in Calistoga that had 30,000 visitors in 2019; the Benjamin Vineyard in Rutherford and the S&J Vineyard in Capell Valley along with its inventory that features prices from $38 to $225 per bottle. The transaction is expected to close in December.

Treasury, which owns such brands as Chateau St. Jean in Kenwood and Beaulieu Vineyard in Rutherford and the iconic Stag’s Leap brand, had previously been shedding some of its more budget-priced assets in the United States. That included selling a portion of its storied Beringer Vineyards brand in St. Helena to The Wine Group earlier this year.

“We have effectively replaced our portfolio of low margin and declining commercial assets with Frank Family Vineyards’ sustainably high-growing, high margin luxury business,” said Ben Dollard, president of the company’s America division.

While the Napa Valley’s growth in recent years has been fueled with increasingly more expensive cabernet sauvignon, Dollard said his company saw tremendous upside in the luxury chardonnay market from the area with Frank helping drive the market with its varietals. For example, the Frank Family chardonnay from grapes grown in the Carneros region retails on the winery’s website for $38 a bottle and the winery notes that it has a 90-point rating from critic Jeb Dunnuck.

“Frank's Family has a strong position in the large and growing U.S. luxury chardonnay market and combined with our existing portfolio will see us now ranked as the number three overall in luxury chardonnay and number two in $25 and above,” he said.

Rich Frank founded Frank Family Vineyards in 1992 after first purchasing a home in Rutherford and grew the business noted for holding its tastings in a 1930s pale yellow Craftsman home. Rich and his wife Leslie Frank will keep ownership of Winston Hill Vineyard in Rutherford and the Lewis Vineyard in Carneros and allow TWE to continue to source grapes for the label.

Frank Family winemaker and general manager Todd Graff will remain with the company.

You can reach Staff Writer Bill Swindell at 707-521-5223 or bill.swindell@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @BillSwindell.