A Seattle-based company is buying one of Santa Barbara County’s largest wine operations, as Precept Wine & Spirits today announced the purchase of the entire wine portfolio of Miller Family Wine Company. The sale represents a deeper dive into California and the Central Coast for Precept, while marking the end of the Millers’ 15-year adventure into large-scale winemaking.
The sales price was not disclosed, nor were the individual assets. But the deal was a massive acquisition no matter the specifics, featuring nine nationally distributed brands — including Butternut, Ballard Lane, Smashberry, Optik, and J. Wilkes, among others — as well as all of associated trademarks, inventory, bulk wine, and a robust private label business.
The Millers retained ownership of the family’s historic vineyards — Bien Nacido and Solomon Hills in the Santa Maria Valley and French Camp in Paso Robles — and will also continue to make their own Bien Nacido Estate wines. The move returns the Millers back to their grape-growing roots after about 15 years of trying to grow into a major winemaking company.
“My family made the decision that we wanted to focus on farming,” said Nicholas Miller, whose father and uncle, Steve and Bob Miller, started the vineyard business in 1969. “It’s no secret that the industry has been troubled and we were going in a lot of different directions. This is a way we can consolidate what our legacy is, and that’s on the farming.”…