VINEYARD CHANGES PART II ©

In a recent posting I wrote about  Adelaida Cellars, & Daou Vineyards  and what they were doing with parts of the historic former Hoffman Mountain Ranch property. There has also been some closure to the saga of the former Martin Brothers winery. The operation, which was founded in the early days of vineyard expansion in Paso Robles, was recently involved in another pair of transactions. I met one of the brothers in the early 1980s and began using their wines for my clients wine lists in Colorado. Martin Brothers became the Martin & Weyrich winery around 2000 when David Weyrich invested in the operation. David inherited a significant portion of a $610M estate from his father in law. Local publications relate his rapid moves into "risky" business ventures, including boats, jets, hotels and real estate along the Central Coast. His investment in the winery expanded to include building the luxurious Villa Toscana, a small, high end boutique inn and spa on the east outskirts of town with the production facilities next door and surrounded by vineyards. They also operated a large tasting room at a prime location just off Hwy 101 on E 46.

In only ten years Weyrich's investments unraveled and the inn, winery and tasting room were in receivership by 2010. With debt of a reported $4.5M on the wine businesses, they were sold for less than half of their worth and the holdings were parceled out. One local newspaper reported Weyrich owed $60M to 150 creditors when the collapse happened. The tasting room was reopened by San Antonio Winery, a big bulk producer from LA seeking a sales outlet in a popular tourist wine region. The inn was somewhat vandalized and the wine making equipment and building lay empty. In the fall of 2012, a Chinese company purchased the winery and inn. Allegedly the owner is the largest adult beverage distributor in China and set a plan in place to purchase and blend wines for export to China. The vineyards adjacent to the winery were part of the purchase so there could be estate wines in the future. The plans for the inn are said to be simply private use for events, visiting VIPs and the marketing trade. Last week it was announced that the major vineyard block, located in Templeton, southeast of Paso Robles, has been purchased by Pomar Junction Vineyard & Winery . The winery and tasting room are near the purchased vineyards and their current bottlings, from the existing estate, qualify for SIP ^TM  (Sustainability In Practice) certification. This means they both best "green" practices in their viticultural techniques on the land and also support them throughout their staff. It will be good to see the renovation of the former Martin land adapt that program as well.