Private equity firm sells off Ste. Michelle, retains Oregon wine holdings
Dec 9, 2025, 3:01 PM
People taste wine at a winery. (Photo: David Paul Morris, Getty Images)
(Photo: David Paul Morris, Getty Images)
Private equity firm Sycamore Partners split up some of its wine ventures by selling the Ste. Michelle Wine Estates’ name and transferring Washington properties to the Wyckoffs, a leading wine and grape production family in the Yakima Valley.
Sycamore Partners will retain all of its Oregon wineries, including A to Z Wineworks, Erath Winery, and Rex Hill, according to The Portland Business Journal.
Months before the sale, Sycamore Partners closed a $10 billion deal to acquire Walgreens Boots Alliance, and eventually took the popular drugstore chain private.
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Oregon wineries to operate independently
Amy Prosenjak will remain as the CEO of the Oregon wineries, a position she was appointed to earlier this year.
“It’s a continuation or extension of our operational independence,” Prosenjak told The Portland Business Journal on Monday. “This is kind of the final piece of the puzzle, where we now have separate ownership. The Oregon team feels like we know how to do our business, how to grow the grapes, make the wines, market the wines.”
Despite the ownership split, Ste. Michelle will continue as the sales agent for the Oregon wineries, preserving their existing distribution network.
Sycamore Partners purchased Ste. Michelle for $1.2 billion in 2021, which was the region’s largest wine company for decades. Sycamore Partners also purchased A to Z Wineworks and Rex Hill in 2022. Ste. Michelle was underperforming at the time Sycamore Partners purchased the company.
In 2023 and 2024, Sycamore sold all of its California holdings to refocus on its Pacific Northwest ventures. Sycamore now solely owns estates within Oregon after the sale.
“As partners since the early 1980s, we deeply believe in Ste. Michelle Wine Estates’ outstanding portfolio of iconic Northwest wine brands,” Court Wyckoff, CEO of Wyckoff Farms and Coventry Vale Winery, said in a written statement obtained by The Portland Business Journal. “We look forward to working with the Ste. Michelle team to build on its leadership, invest in winemaking quality, and champion Washington’s wine grape growers and Washington wine to consumers across the country.”
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