The future of the 56-year-old Kenwood Vineyards brand and its Sonoma Valley winery were uncertain Friday, March 27, amid mixed messages as to whether it was closing or changing hands.
A sign that it could live on in some form under its former owner is the sale completed Thursday, March 26, of the nearly 33-acre winery property at 9592 Sonoma Highway to Kenwood Winery Land LLC for $4 million, according to public records. That company is led by Gary Heck, owner of F. Korbel & Bros., best known for its Korbel bubbly brand based in Russian River Valley. What’s happening to the brand itself isn’t immediately clear, but Heck has a long history with it.
F. Korbel & Bros. had sold Kenwood to French alcohol drinks giant Pernod Ricard in May 2014 in a deal estimated at under $100 million. Just the real estate portion of that acquisition was valued in county records at $7.2 million. Pernod Richard bought the brand as its first Sonoma County acquisition, part of a planned U.S. expansion. But now Kenwood is Pernod Ricard’s last wine holding amid a multiyear shift to spirits that included the sale of Mumm Napa to Napa Valley’s Trinchero Family Wine & Spirits in December…