The next chapter for Santa Barbara County’s first commercial winery of the modern era is ready for a new author, as Santa Barbara Winery was listed for sale this week.
The $9.25 million asking price includes the brand, its extensive inventory, the Funk Zone tasting room lease, and the valuable trademark. No facilities, vineyards, or other real estate holdings are listed. But the family of founder Pierre Lafond, who died in April 2022 at age 92, is prepared to negotiate for additional assets, including grape/production contracts and potentially even land.
“There is nothing left off the table at this point,” said Lafond’s granddaughter Sara Deinhard, who is the executive vice president of the family companies and specifically director of operations for Wendy Foster Inc.
The sale does not include any other Lafond-related business, as the family will continue to run Lafond Winery & Vineyards, which just completed construction of a brand-new facility on Santa Rosa Road near Buellton; the six boutique clothing stores under the Wendy Foster brand; and the Pierre Lafond Market & Deli on San Ysidro Road in Montecito.
“The sale has to do with our family’s desire to focus on the future and decide what was doable for us as a family unit,” said Deinhard, who’s worked for the family businesses since 2008. Much of her family is also intimately involved in the day-to-day, including her mom, sister, and uncle. “[Pierre] had this attitude of ‘When I’m gone, I’m gone, and whatever will be will be,’” she explained of his wishes for the company. “He left it to us to decide.”
They believe that now is an opportune time for the sale. “We know how well the business is doing, and we want to see that move forward,” said Deinhard. “It’s very sizable and profitable, and there is such potential growth. With everything else in our portfolio, we don’t have the bandwidth to do that ourselves at this time.”
The family hopes the sale will keep alive the legacy of Lafond, who was a visionary of Santa Barbara’s wine-growing potential but also of the Funk Zone, where he based the winery in 1964, long before the waterfront warehouse neighborhood got its name.
“We have so much pride in Pierre and everything he built, especially Santa Barbara Winery, which has a huge attachment to our family,” said Deinhard. “We’re ready to pass it on to hopefully someone that’s willing to do it justice, to do it in the way that Pierre would have.”
Interested parties can contact Robert Rauchhaus at rrauchhaus@radiusgroup.com or (805) 705-8512.
