Wind Gap Wines sold to former Charles Banks-owned Terroir Life

Founder of Sonoma Valley-based Wind Gap Wines, Pax Mahle, has sold his remaining 50% share in the company to Terroir Life, formerly owned by Charles Banks, who is serving four years in prison for wire fraud totalling US$10 million.

Pax Mahle. Image: Terroir Life

As reported by Wine Spectator, Mahle is selling his stake to focus on his own brand, Pax Wine, which he founded in 2000. The deal includes the winery, its inventory and separate brand Agharta, according to the site.

Founded in 2006, Wind Gap, which is named after breaks in coastal hills that draw the region’s famed cooling fog inland, is known for its cool-climate Pinot Noir, Syrah and Chardonnay. It sources wines from the Sonoma Coast and Petaluma Wind Gap, as well as vineyards all along the coast of California.

Mahle is reportedly retaining control of the winemaking facility in Sebastopol along with the former Wind Gap tasting room, which has now been taken over by his own wine brand.

Speaking to Wine Spectator, Mahle said that he and his wife Pam had actually been trying to gain full control of the brand for over year, but decided to sever their connection to Terroir Life following Banks’ conviction in June last year.

“We certainly worked very hard coming up with a plan to keep the brand. We got a great deal and we are very happy,” Mahle said. Making around 3,000 cases a year of his namesake branded wine, Mahle added that deal was also about “simplifying our lives and focusing on what we are passionate about”.

Terroir Life purchased a 30% stake in Wind Gap and Agharta in 2013, handling the sales and marketing side while Mahle worked as the winemaker.

Banks, the former owner of cult Californian winery Screaming Eagle, later left the company in 2009 to found Terroir Life, which owns or manages nearly a dozen wineries in California, New Zealand and South Africa. In June 2017, he was sentenced to four years in jail for defrauding retired NBA star Tim Duncan out of US$10 million.

After initially denying the charges in an interview with Wine Spectator, in April 2017 Banks pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud against Duncan. He was sentenced to four years behind bars, ordered to pay Duncan $7.5 million in restitution and serve three years of supervised release after he finishes his prison time.