| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Winemaking |
| Founded | 1981 |
| Headquarters | Livermore, California, US |
Key people | John Sutton (CEO) |
| Products | Wine |
| Website | www.thewinegroup.com |
The Wine Group is an American alcoholic beverage company founded in 1981, and based in Livermore, California.
It produces wine brands including Franzia, Cupcake Vineyards, Benziger Family Winery, Chloe Wine Collection, 7 Deadly Wines, Imagery Estate Winery, Concannon Vineyard, and Almaden Vineyards. As of 2008, the company was the world's third-largest wine producer. [1] As of 2018, the company became the second-largest U.S. wine company, producing 53 million cases annually [2]
The Wine Group is not affiliated with the Australian entity The Wine Group Pty Ltd. which was found to have breached multiple spam and telemarketing laws in Australia in 2021 [4]
Paul Masson was an early pioneer of California viticulture known for his brand of Californian sparkling wine.
The Livermore Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area in Alameda County, California, surrounding the city of Livermore in the Tri-Valley region. Both the AVA and the city are named after Robert Livermore, a landowner whose holdings encompassed the valley. The groundwater basin underlying the valley is the Livermore Basin, the largest sub-unit of which is the Mocho Subbasin. The Livermore Basin is one of five aquifers in the San Francisco Bay Area that supply most of the metropolitan Bay Area population. The entire Livermore Basin aquifer faces a concern over elevated total dissolved solids by the year 2020 due to an expanding human population leading to higher rates of return water flows to the aquifer containing certain salts.
Concannon Vineyard is the second-largest winery in the Livermore Valley of California, producing around 30,000 cases annually. It is well known for its Petite Sirah and Concannon was the first winery to bottle this grape as a varietal wine in 1961. Prior to 1961, the petite sirah grape was produced worldwide as a blend wine. It also produces several other varieties of wine, including Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvingnon. Concannon is owned by The Wine Group.
GALLO is a winery and distributor headquartered in Modesto, California. It was founded in 1933 by Ernest Gallo and Julio Gallo of the Gallo family, and is the largest exporter of California wines. It is the largest wine producer in the world, producing over 3% of the world's entire annual supply of 35 billion bottles with an annual revenue of $5.3 billion it is also the largest family-owned winery in the United States. Gallo provides about 3,500 jobs to Modesto residents and 2,500 jobs in other parts of the state, country, and world.
Franzia is a brand of wine produced by The Wine Group, known for its box wines sold in 3 and 5-liter cartons. Franzia wines, throughout their history, were known as affordable table wines, popular in the 1960s and 1970s as "jug wine", and now as "box wine". The Wine Group is the third largest wine company in the world, behind Constellation Brands and the E&J Gallo Winery. The Franzia brand today has no business relationship with Fred Franzia of the Bronco Wine Company, known for its low-cost Charles Shaw wines. The Franzia family sold the brand to Coca-Cola in 1973 when Fred Franzia was in his early adult years; and it was sold to The Wine Group in 1981.
The Bronco Wine Company is a vintner that produces wine under many brands, such as Amusant Bubbly and Ballett Vineyards, and is based south of Ceres, California. It is the fourth largest producer of wine in the United States. Bronco Wine Co has an estimated 10,000 employees globally. There are two companies in the Bronco Wine Co. corporate family.
Constellation Brands, Inc. is an American producer and marketer of beer, wine, and spirits. A Fortune 500 company, Constellation is the largest beer import company in the US, measured by sales, and has the third-largest market share of all major beer suppliers. It also has sizable investments in medical and recreational cannabis through its association with Canopy Growth. Based in Victor, New York, Constellation has about 40 facilities and approximately 9,000 employees.
California wine has a long and continuing history, and in the late twentieth century became recognized as producing some of the world's finest wine. While wine is made in all fifty U.S. states, up to 90% of American wine is produced in the state. California would be the fourth largest producer of wine in the world if it were an independent nation.
Pernod Ricard Winemakers is the wholly owned wine subsidiary of French wine and spirits producer Pernod Ricard, which is one of the largest alcoholic beverage companies in the world. It arose from the Australian and New Zealand companies formerly known as Premium Wine Brands and Pernod Ricard Pacific, and was then extended to become Pernod Ricard's umbrella organisation for its wine operations in other countries. Amongst its large portfolio, its major wineries are Jacob's Creek from Australia, Campo Viejo from Spain, Kenwood Vineyards from the United States, and Brancott Estate from New Zealand.
Inglenook is a winery that produces estate bottled wines in Rutherford, California, in the Napa Valley.
Brancott Estate is the brand adopted since 2010 by Pernod Ricard for New Zealand's largest wine producer, formerly Montana Wines, which now operates as the New Zealand division of Pernod Ricard Winemakers. The name comes from its Brancott winery in Blenheim, and was chosen to reduce confusion in the United States market with wines from the state of Montana.
Accolade Wines is an international wine business with headquarters in South Australia and corporate offices in Melbourne. It has been owned by the Carlyle Group, an American private equity company, since 2018.
The Mountain Winery, formerly the Paul Masson Mountain Winery, is a winery in Saratoga, California, United States, North America. It was founded by Paul Masson, a pioneer of the California wine industry. The winery became famous for its slogan, voiced by Orson Welles in television commercials: "We will sell no wine before its time."
J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines is a winemaking company headquartered in San Jose, California, with over 4,000 acres of estate vineyards in the Paso Robles AVA in San Luis Obispo County, Arroyo Seco and Santa Lucia Highlands AVAs in Monterey County, and the St. Helena AVA in Napa Valley, California. The family-owned and operated company was founded by Jerry Lohr in 1974. The company operates wineries in San Jose, Paso Robles, and Greenfield, California. In 2013, Steve Lohr was appointed CEO of the company. J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines’ product portfolio includes eight tiers of wine: J. Lohr Signature, J. Lohr Cuvée Series, J. Lohr Vineyard Series, J. Lohr Gesture, J. Lohr Pure Paso Proprietary Red Wine, J. Lohr Monterey Roots, J. Lohr Estates and ARIEL Vineyards. The portfolio also includes specialty brands Cypress Vineyards and Painter Bridge. J. Lohr ranks among the top 25 wine producers in the United States, with annual US sales exceeding 1.8 million cases.
The Old Almadén Winery is a historic wine production site in Santa Clara County, California, situated on the eastern slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Almaden Vineyards, historically written as Almadén Vineyards, is a Californian winery. Founded in 1852, it is the oldest commercial winery in California. Originally located and established in Almaden Valley, San Jose, the winery has since moved to the San Joaquin Valley, primarily based in Escalon and Madera.
Buena Vista Winery is a winery located in Sonoma, California, United States. It is the second oldest winery in California after the D'Agostini Winery, which was founded a year prior in 1856. It was founded by Agoston Haraszthy in 1857. The winery is located on its original grounds, just east of Sonoma, California.
Treasury Wine Estates is an Australian global winemaking and distribution business with headquarters in Melbourne. It was formerly the wine division of international brewing company Foster's Group.
The Wonderful Company LLC is a private corporation based in Los Angeles, California. With revenues of over $4 billion, it functions as a holding company for Stewart and Lynda Resnick and as such is a vehicle for their personal investments in a number of businesses.
Jackson Family Wines is a wine company headquartered in Santa Rosa, California. At 6 million cases sold per year, it is the ninth-largest wine producer in the United States. Jackson Family Wines includes 40 brands, sourced from vineyards and wineries in California, Oregon, the Bordeaux region in France, Tuscany in Italy, Australia, Chile and South Africa. It controls 50,000 acres (20,000 ha) in the United States and is the largest owner of coastal vineyards in California and Oregon. The family-owned company is known for the brand Kendall-Jackson.
