WINEQUITY

Vintage Wine Estates, Inc. (VWE), formerly Bespoke Capital Acquisition Corp, is a vintner in the United States, offering a collection of wines produced by heritage wineries, lifestyle wines, wine brands and packaging concepts as well as craft spirits. The Company's three main businesses segments: wholesale, business-to-business (B2B) and direct-to-consumer (DTC).

The Company has approximately 50 brands. Through its diverse portfolio of brands, VWE offers consumers lifestyle wines offerings such as Layer Cake, as well as brands such as Girard, Clos Pegase, B.R. Cohn, Viansa and Laetitia.

The Company's wine portfolio has three tiers: lifestyle brands, luxury brands, and digitally native brands. VWE also produces and sells craft spirits. The Company owns or controls approximately 900 acres of planted vineyards located in the winegrowing regions of the United States. It owns nine winery estates and leases three winery estates.

Vintage Wine Estates was built on a commitment to preserve the essential wineries of the past and create the breakthrough wines of the future. Like a vineyard where every block is mindfully planting to achieve the best expression in the wines, Vintage thoughtfully stewards each of its heritage wines and innovative brands to reach their highest potential.

Its brand portfolio grew to include more than 60 labels, including Girard Winery, Clos Pegase, Swanson Vineyards, B.R. Cohn, Viansa Sonoma, Cameron Hughes, Windsor Vineyards, Laetitia and Layer Cake, among others, with most of its wines priced in the $10 to $20 per bottle range. VWE owns and leases about 1,850 acres of vineyards and operates 11 wineries and nine tasting rooms, according to court documents. It employs 377 employees.

In February, 2023, 18 months after the IPO, the company was in financial trouble, and Pat Roney stepped aside as CEO.

The pandemic created headwinds when the company was already overextended and the following changes and slowdown in U.S. wine sales made it hard to recover. Many of the brands were on the downturn when they were acquired.

In July 2024, Vintage Wine Estates (VWE) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and voluntarily delisted from the Nasdaq, as the company was unable to engineer a turnaround after months of turmoil. Nearly 400 employees could be laid off two months from the filing date. The Sonoma-headquartered company went public with a $600 million IPO in 2021, led by longtime chief executive Pat Roney. Its share price reached a high of $12.63 shortly after the IPO, but fell from there and was sitting at $0.11 when it filed for bankruptcy.

As of March 31, the company had about $475 million in assets and $400 million in liabilities, according to a court filing by current CEO Seth Kaufman.

A few months after Vintage Wine Estates (VWE) declared bankruptcy, more than 20 wineries and brands from the firm were set to come under new ownership, after an auction in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

Foley Family Wines & Spirits is set to acquire Swanson Vineyards, Sonoma Coast Vineyards and Cosentino, as well as the Cherry Pie and Bar Dog brands, for $15 million.

Jayson Adair of Adair Wines aimed for more premium brands, with his company paying $85 million for Clos Pegase, Girard, B.R. Cohn, Kunde and Viansa.

Other brands like Laetitia Vineyard & Winery and Owen Roe were sold to investor Ejnar Knudsen, while Vino.com picked up Layer Cake.

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