AXA Millésimes has expanded its footprint in California by buying Platt Winery on the western reaches of Sonoma Coast for an undisclosed sum.
The French insurance coverage large’s wine division made its first foray into the Golden State when it purchased Napa Valley vineyard Outpost again in 2018. Managing director Christian Seely has been on the hunt for a winery of comparable high quality to supply Pinot Noir and Chardonnay ever since.
AXA Millésimes jumped on the alternative to snap up the 111-hectare Platt Winery, which is positioned eight miles from the Pacific Ocean on California’s Sonoma Coast.
Seeley stated: ‘Our consideration was drawn to the distinctive high quality of the terroir of Platt winery by Thomas Rivers Brown, who’s our advisor winemaker at Outpost Winery. He has been making excellent Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays at Rivers-Marie from grapes he has been shopping for from Platt for a number of years.
‘After tasting these wines, and after a number of visits to Platt, we had been satisfied that this was the positioning we had been searching for.’
AXA Millésimes, which owns Château Pichon Baron, the celebrated Pauillac Grand Cru Classé property, had recognized Outpost Vineyard in Napa as one other location superb for producing Cabernet.
The crew has adopted the identical logic with its buy of Platt Winery. It owns Domaine de l’Arlot in Burgundy – which has Premier Cru websites in Nuits St Georges and Vosne Romanée, and Grand Cru websites in Romanée St Vivant. It believes Platt Winery provides ‘equally distinctive terroir for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay’.
Russian River Companions, a winery funding fund managed by Eric Flanagan of Flanagan Wines in Healdsburg, has owned Platt Winery since 2015. It has invested in creating the winery over the previous seven years and it at present sells grapes to main producers within the area. Simply 15ha is at present planted with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, however there are permits in place for an additional 4.5ha.
‘This a part of Freestone is slowly changing into the best space for Pinot on the Sonoma Coast,’ stated Brown, advisor winemaker at Outpost. ‘We consider that the potential for making nice Pinot Noir and Chardonnay wines right here is immense.’
