BY MICHELLE
LOCKE
What's next on
the entrepreneur's
shopping list?
illiam P. (Bill) Foley II didn't
get into the wine business
until he was in his 50s. But
he sure has made up for
lost time.
Foley, who came to wine after a
successful career in the title insurance industry, has purchased 16
wineries since 1996, including four
in the past year. His Foley Family
Wines, which includes the Chalk
Hill Estate Vineyards & Winery,
Firestone Vineyard and Sebastiani
Vineyards & Winery brands, currently produces approximately 1
million cases of wine a year and
includes 2,500 acres of vineyards.
And he's not done yet. Although
Foley isn't looking to buy more wineries right now, he does want to
increase his vineyard holdings and
is working on going vertical – supporting key brands with their own
grapes.
Foley's foray into wine is actually a retirement plan gone wrong.
He moved to Santa Barbara in the
mid-1990s with the idea of slow-
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V I N E YARD & WINERY MANAGEMENT
|
Sept - Oct 2013
w w w. v w m m e d i a . c o m
