Ovid Sold

[Brian_Tuite]

@ky1em!ttskus

@Brian Tuite

@Steve Crawford

you are correct. but you also get the idea.

Try not to confuse weekend tasting/tour visitors with actual clientele.

Maybe just try not to judge other people based on what they enjoy drinking/doing?

Yeah, that too.

[Glenn_L_e_v_i_n_e]

I have loved the Ovid wines we have uncorked, the place is stunning, and Austin Peterson is a great guy. Price per bottle left me behind though awhile back. I have no anxiety for the principals involved.

[Blake_R_Maso]

I mean, this board does seem like a pretty safe place to judge others… especially when posts also go hand in hand with drinking… or maybe I’m just a bad person


Market dynamics for the flipping seem to be eerily similar to how people were behaving with MBSs… same with the housing models they were applied to (prices only go up right?..)…

[larry_schaffer]

Austin was a class mate of mine at Davis - great guy with a great ‘pedigree’ as well as his dad was a winemaker in Napa as well. Any idea of whether he would be kept on or not?

I do wonder about the comments about this not being a good match. What proof do you have of what the Duncans will do?

Cheers.

[larry_schaffer]

Just saw this - estimating the purchase price at about $50 Million - and it goes into a bit more detail about the M&A activity in the area recently . . .

Napa 'cult darling' snatched up for $50 million as vineyard deals heat up

[R_Gilbane]

Some hot takes going on here. I think it’s crazy to assume that it wasn’t s great fit for their personalities or fulfilling. They spent 20 years building Ovid from scratch. That’s a long time to relentlessly pursue something you’re not really into. Is it really so far fetched to think that they are simply moving on to pursue other challenges?

That and Brian’s comment about the Napa pricing bubble. Mark Nelson made a similar decision when he sold his tech company in 1998. Guy has a knack for knowing when the music is about to stop.

[Rich_Brown]

@R_Gilbane

Some hot takes going on here. I think it’s crazy to assume that it wasn’t s great fit for their personalities or fulfilling. They spent 20 years building Ovid from scratch. That’s a long time to relentlessly pursue something you’re not really into. Is it really so far fetched to think that they are simply moving on to pursue other challenges?

That and Brian’s comment about the Napa pricing bubble. Mark Nelson made a similar decision when he sold his tech company in 1998. Guy has a knack for knowing when the music is about to stop.

Exactly where my head was at (i.e. your first paragraph). Bold statements to say the least. Someone makes a business decision after growing something to a very successful level…and they get the types of comments in this thread?? I don’t know…just reeks of jealousy to me for some reason.

[R_Gilbane]

@George Chadwick

I think the more one is a combination of farmer and chemist, the more one is happy in a Napa Valley winery. Being a salesperson helps but that is often inconsistent with a farmer or a chemist and can just be a necessary evil. There is poetry in wine but if you’re running a winery there’s not much time for poetry.

Deep thoughts.

[Brian_Tuite]

@R_Gilbane

That and Brian’s comment about the Napa pricing bubble. Mark Nelson made a similar decision when he sold his tech company in 1998. Guy has a knack for knowing when the music is about to stop.

1. This isn’t tech, it’s agriculture.
2. The cost of raw materials does not drop with new technology.
3. You can’t speed up the process in order to increase production. It’s a yearly cycle with predicatble yields. Get back to me when you can buy Screagle BTG in pill form. Just add to 4oz of distilled water.
4. Producers have bridged the price gap to where flipping wines is not a good investmet strategy. People who bought cult wines only for investments are moving their money elsewhere.
5. Too many choices at the $100+ price point. The people who used to buy the wines being flipped have multiple options at release pricing.
6. Generational farming. Farming is hard work, family farms are being sold because the next generation does not want that kind of work. They’d cash out before breaking a sweat.
7. When billionaires are selling/marketing their wineries (stay tuned to this topic over the next year) it’s to get out. They didn’t get to be billionaires by being dumb investors and clutching onto stagnant holdings.

There is a difference between a pricing bubble and the high end of the industry going through a shake-up.

[R_Gilbane]

@Brian Tuite

@R_Gilbane

That and Brian’s comment about the Napa pricing bubble. Mark Nelson made a similar decision when he sold his tech company in 1998. Guy has a knack for knowing when the music is about to stop.

1. This isn’t tech, it’s agriculture.
2. The cost of raw materials does not drop with new technology.
3. You can’t speed up the process in order to increase production. It’s a yearly cycle with predicatble yields. Get back to me when you can buy Screagle BTG in pill form. Just add to 4oz of distilled water.
4. Producers have bridged the price gap to where flipping wines is not a good investmet strategy. People who bought cult wines only for investments are moving their money elsewhere.
5. Too many choices at the $100+ price point. The people who used to buy the wines being flipped have multiple options at release pricing.
6. Generational farming. Farming is hard work, family farms are being sold because the next generation does not want that kind of work. They’d cash out before breaking a sweat.
7. When billionaires are selling/marketing their wineries (stay tuned to this topic over the next year) it’s to get out. They didn’t get to be billionaires by being dumb investors and clutching onto stagnant holdings.

There is a difference between a pricing bubble and the high end of the industry going through a shake-up.

Slightly over analyzed as my comment was simply that the smart money knows when to walk away from the table and cash out their chips. That’s not something that’s confined to a specific sector.

[Brian_Tuite]

@R_Gilbane

@Brian Tuite

@R_Gilbane

That and Brian’s comment about the Napa pricing bubble. Mark Nelson made a similar decision when he sold his tech company in 1998. Guy has a knack for knowing when the music is about to stop.

1. This isn’t tech, it’s agriculture.
2. The cost of raw materials does not drop with new technology.
3. You can’t speed up the process in order to increase production. It’s a yearly cycle with predicatble yields. Get back to me when you can buy Screagle BTG in pill form. Just add to 4oz of distilled water.
4. Producers have bridged the price gap to where flipping wines is not a good investmet strategy. People who bought cult wines only for investments are moving their money elsewhere.
5. Too many choices at the $100+ price point. The people who used to buy the wines being flipped have multiple options at release pricing.
6. Generational farming. Farming is hard work, family farms are being sold because the next generation does not want that kind of work. They’d cash out before breaking a sweat.
7. When billionaires are selling/marketing their wineries (stay tuned to this topic over the next year) it’s to get out. They didn’t get to be billionaires by being dumb investors and clutching onto stagnant holdings.

There is a difference between a pricing bubble and the high end of the industry going through a shake-up.

Slightly over analyzed as my comment was simply that the smart money knows when to walk away from the table and cash out their chips. That’s not something that’s confined to a specific sector.

[Bruce_Rudman]

I’ll take some lumps here (likely from those that also bash those that liked the Caymus 40th anniversary wine) - a remarkable incident considering the many thousands of bottles listed in inventories on Cellartracker - but I actually went to Silver Oak on Tuesday and liked it. I enjoyed the wines, and for the price found them quite remarkable. Now, the pours they gave us were on the huge side (probably 3-4 oz) per pour and on Tuesdays they pour the Twomey wines too for the $30 tasting fee (so five 3-4 oz pours before revisiting). I found the Alexander Valley Cab to be very nice for the $75 retail price and the Napa was good as well (pouring the 2012’s).

I think this may be a good fit for an ultra-premium to mesh with their current line-up. It actually would not have made sense for another ultra-premium to buy Ovid and fit them into the line-up.

[Scott_Brunson]

Anyone gonna buy stock in vanilla extract?