Napa’s Plata acquires 14 retail wine brands from Petaluma vintner-distiller

Napa-based Plata Wine Partners on Thursday revealed the exclusive retail brands it picked up from Purple Wines, a Petaluma company that earlier this month mentioned the sale as part of its transition to focusing on its own luxury-tier wine and spirits brands.

Plata acquired the following brands, which Purple had offered exclusively to certain retailers under contract: Adixion, Athenaeum, Arius, Cabpothesis, Concoxion, Dark Hundred, Donovan-Parke, Dusk to Dawn, Main & Geary, Pink Moon, Shiloh Road, Trailhead, Twirl, and Zynthesis.

Terms of the deal, which closed on Jan. 12, weren’t disclosed.

“Bringing these new brands into our fold pushes us closer to producing 500,000 cases of wine this year,” said Scott Smith, Plata president and CEO, in the announcement. “These lines also beautifully complement our current collection of premium wines from California appellations, including sub-AVAs in Napa, Sonoma, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara counties. It’s an exciting time of growth and new opportunities.”

Founded in 2005, Plata creates and produces more than 70 wine brands and offers bulk wine services using its own grapes from 18,000-plus acres of 100% certified sustainable California coastal vineyards.

Derek Benham founded Purple in 2001 and since 2018 has been scaling back the business from providing custom winemaking and exclusive brands to focus on its luxury wines Raeburn and Scattered Peaks and high-end spirits brand Redwood Empire.

Earlier this month, Purple President Aaron Webb talked with the Business Journal about the latest moves of the company from an operation that produced over 4 million cases annually to one that now makes about 400,000.

Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.