Sonoma County winery plans last vintage amid changing marketplace
Arista Winery, a small, family-run producer of premium Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley, this week announced this year’s release will be its last. It comes less than a year after completion of the generational handoff of the 24-year-old brand.
“This is a milestone moment for our family, and one that comes with a mix of reflection, gratitude, and — yes — a touch of sadness,” said the letter posted on the Healdsburg brand’s website by the McWilliams family. “After 30 years of growing grapes and making wine, we have made the decision that the 2024 vintage will be our final vintage of Arista wines produced and released.”
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The family cited structural challenges facing the wine industry, particularly for small producers.
“The wine world is changing,” the letter continues, noting that while Sonoma County will remain a premier wine region, “the realities of today’s market makes it increasingly difficult for a small, family-run winery to continue consistently offering the calibers of wines we are known for.”
The McWilliams family emphasized that quality, not scale, has always defined Arista.
“As the wine industry changes — with new consumer trends and changing demographics — we’ve realized that staying true to that mission is more important to us than compromising our standards in order to carry on. Rather than sell the brand and watch it become something different under new ownership, we have chosen to wind Arista down on our own terms.”
The industry is facing a number of challenges that some key analysts have called a structural change to the growth it had enjoyed for nearly three decades. Forecasts, including a key one from Silicon Valley Bank on Jan. 15, have estimated that this correction in demand for wine and grapes could last a few more years.
Arista’s announcement came less than a year after the sale of the winery property. As the Journal reported last March, a trust held by winery founders Al and Janis McWilliams sold the 36-acre property at 7015 Westside Road for $25.35 million. The buyer was an affiliate of Young’s Holdings, the Underwood family company behind marketing companies Wilson Daniels and Infinite Spirits, and brand Jonive Wine.
At the time, Mark McWilliams, who manages sales and marketing, told the Journal that his parents were ready to step back and explained why the second generation chose not to buy the land themselves: “We feel very strongly about our destiny. We didn’t want to bring on partners.”
Following the sale, Arista continued producing the 6,000-case-a-year brand under an alternating proprietorship arrangement at the same facility, retaining its winemaking team and vineyard sources.
Al and Janis McWilliams started the Arista brand in 2002, purchased the Westside Road property two years later, and opened the winery in 2018. Originally from Texas, the parents got into the wine business as partners with her brother John Copeland in buying Pine Mountain Vineyards near Cloverdale in 1996.
Mark McWilliams and his brother Ben took up management in 2012.
Here’s how Arista has planed its wind-down. The 2024 vintage will be released to mailing list members throughout this calendar year, after which remaining library wines will be offered. The brand owners will continue by-appointment tastings and plan a series of farewell events this year.
The final date has yet to be determined, but the letter cautioned aficionados to plan a visit by year-end.
“Between growing a business, developing our estate, building a winery, and establishing our place amongst the great producers of California we have zero regrets as this story comes to an end,” the letter said.
Jeff Quackenbush joined North Bay Business Journal in May 1999. He covers primarily wine, construction and real estate. Reach him at jeff@nbbj.news or 707-521-4256.