Foley buys Château St. Jean from Treasury Wine Estates

Foley Family Wines has bought Château St. Jean from Treasury Wine Estates and plans to revitalise its good reputation and bring it back to becoming one of the best in the Sonoma County.

Foley, owned by Bill Foley, will acquire the historic 1920s château, a 6,000-square-foot visitor centre, a 39,000-square-foot wine production facility and 79 planted acres of estate vineyards.

The winery, founded in 1973, launched its first vintage in 1975 with winemaker Dick Arrowood before Margo Van Staaveren followed in his footsteps.

Foley said in an interview: “Treasury didn’t do it any favours. It’s really to start making a lot of single-vineyard chardonnays and pinot noirs and to get Cinq Cépages back to where it was a 100-point wine at one point. It’s really going to be a focus back to what Chateau St. Jean used to be.”

Treasury Wine Estates, which was formerly part of Foster’s Brewing Group,  had owned the winery since 2000. Treasury sold to Foley for an undisclosed sum.

Last year, California-based wine group Foley Family Wines has acquired Sonoma County’s Ferrari-Carano Vineyards and Winery for a reported US$250 million. Its purchase of Ferrari-Carano, known for its fumé blanc, included the winery in Dry Creek Valley; the Villa Fiore tasting room and three other tasting facilities; the PreVail Mountain Winery in Alexander Valley; and 3,183 of land, which included 1,223 acres under vine planted across 21 sites in the Alexander Valley, Russian River Valley, Dry Creek Valley, Carneros, Mendocino Ridge and Anderson Valley AVAs.