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With the big Williams Selyem deal, a California wine icon aims to avoid a common fate: a soulless private equity future
Making sense of a different sort of winery acquisition, in this week s Drinking with Esther newsletter
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Williams Selyem will change hands for a second time.Peter DaSilva / The Chronicle 2006
We’re two weeks into the new year, and already there’s been a lot of merger-acquisition news in the California wine industry. Following O’Neill Vintners’ purchase of Rabble Wines and an $810 million handoff of value-price wine brands from Constellation to Gallo, we learned yesterday of a big change at one of America’s most beloved and prestigious wineries: Williams Selyem, of Russian River Valley Pinot Noir fame, has sold a minority stake to Burgundy’s Faiveley family.