Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010

Precept Brands, Corus Estates merge

By Andy Perdue, Wine Press Northwest

Precept Brands and Corus Estates joined forces earlier this month, turning two of the Northwest's largest and most visible wine companies into one even larger organization.

Corus Estates owns such wine brands as Zefina, Six Prong, Alder Ridge, Sawtooth and Battle Creek. Precept owns a dizzying array of wine labels, including Waterbrook, Washington Hills, Avery Lane and Pine & Post, as well as a part ownership in Willow Crest and Apex Cellars. It also distributes Magnificent Wine Co. and imports wine from Europe.

From an internal perspective, the merger makes sense, as the Baty family owns and operates Corus Estates, and Dan Baty is a part-owner of Precept. The connections go even deeper: When Corus owned Columbia Winery, Covey Run and Ste. Chapelle (before selling to Constellation), Andrew Browne was CEO. After the sale, Browne launched Precept (with Baty's backing) and quickly grew Precept into a huge success.

In 2009, Precept was a 600,000-case wine operation, making it Washington's largest privately held wine company. And its focus on value wines put the company in perfect position to take advantage of the national recession.

Separately, Corus and Precept were seriously big players in the Pacific Northwest wine scene. With the merger, Precept's importance grows even greater.

Read our article profiling the rise of Precept Brands.