Wines & Vines – Peter Mitham
The acquisition of Ste. Chapelle boosts Precept Wine’s Idaho wine production to 140,000 cases. Caldwell, Idaho-Precept Wine has solidified its position as the largest privately owned vintner in the Pacific Northwest with its acquisition of Idaho’s biggest vintner, Ste. Chapelle Winery.
The deal makes Precept the largest single producer in Idaho, where it also owns Sawtooth Estate Winery and 470 acres of vineyards (acquired in January 2010.) Between Sawtooth and Ste. Chapelle, Precept now boasts production of 140,000 cases in Idaho, putting it on track to move 1 million total cases this year (second only to fellow Washington state company Ste. Michelle Wine Estates.)
“We were already the main vineyard source for the majority of the Ste. Chapelle Wines, and we have our Sawtooth winery there, so there are a lot of very easy and obvious synergies,” Alex Evans, senior vice-president of marketing with Precept Wines in Seattle, told Wines & Vines this week.