Just saw an article in wine spectator online about the sale. Looks like you sold it back to Terroir and did okay financially in it. And looks like Terroir is trying to figure out how to move forward with it . . .
Heard it from multiple sources. Wells out at Copain.
Interesting. I dropped off the Copain list around the time of the sale. Just started buying Pax Syrah, do like what I see so far. Liked Wind Gap and it’s savory Syrah profile as well. Still think Edmunds is king of California Syrah, though.
Interesting. Emailed Copain a few days ago asking for the name of the winemaker and have yet to receive a reply.
Cheers,
Curt
For as long as I’ve been following wine and the wine biz (40 years), it seems that when some big corporate buys a small winery and insists that the former owner/winemaker will stay on, the “stay on” lasts ~3-5 years. I think of Bob Lundquist and hope to hell he is the exception with Charles Banks’ ownership. It’s a corollary to one corporation merging with another and representing that only minor changes to management will be made. Yeah, right.
I can think of one other, even more noteworthy exception:
Ridge and Paul Draper. Otsuka Pharmaceutical of Japan bought the winery in 1987.
Ryan Zepaltas unequivocally is winemaker and general manager at Copain Wines now.
wow, interesting. i liked ryan’s stuff under his own label.
Ryan knows how to navigate the corporate. I’m going to enjoy working with him.
Sent some friends to Copain and I didn’t know the news until they reported back to me “no more Wells”. Anyone know any scuttlebut on what he’s doing next?