Boisset buys Artesa Winery in Napa's Carneros
Jean-Charles Boisset adds the pyramid-shaped estate to his California holdings after 13 years of pursuing it, with plans to revive its sparkling wine roots.
The Boisset Artesa Winery deal closes 13 years of pursuit: Jean-Charles Boisset has bought the Carneros estate from Spanish group Raventós Codorníu.
The purchase brings Boisset the 350-acre Artesa estate, including 155 planted acres spread across Napa's Los Carneros and Mt Veeder appellations, plus its distinctive pyramid-shaped winery built into a hillside. The price was not disclosed, and the deal includes Artesa's existing wine inventory.
Artesa was founded in 1991 as Codorníu Napa, a dedicated sparkling wine venture launched by the Spanish cava house. The Carneros appellation, cooled by fog off San Pablo Bay, was chosen specifically for grapes suited to traditional-method sparkling wine.
A destination for art, bringing gardens, fragrance and wine together in one place.
Raventós Codorníu is selling the property as part of a wider push to simplify its corporate structure and concentrate resources on Spain and Argentina, according to Decanter's reporting on the deal.
Sparkling wine returns to Artesa's roots
Boisset plans to produce sparkling wine under both the Artesa label and his own JCB collection, alongside an expanded still-wine programme at the estate. The move effectively returns Artesa to the purpose it was built for three decades ago, before its focus shifted toward still Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Boisset has also described ambitions to turn the property into what he calls a destination for art, bringing together gardens, fragrance and sensory experiences alongside the wine itself, extending a model he has already built at other Boisset Collection properties in Napa and Burgundy.
A long pursuit ends in a bigger portfolio
The purchase extends a buying run that has made Boisset one of the most active consolidators in California wine over the past two decades, adding heritage properties to a portfolio that already spans Napa, Sonoma and Burgundy under family control.
It also lands at a moment when the broader wine trade is under pressure: exporters elsewhere in the world are watching demand shrink, a strain visible in the falling Spanish wine exports reported for the current campaign. Boisset's bet is that a well-known Napa address can still draw both visitors and collectors even as volumes soften elsewhere.
Financial terms aside, the harder number to watch will be whether Artesa's sparkling wine can rebuild a following it lost decades ago, in a Carneros appellation now crowded with producers making the same claim.
