Esther Mobley

1 week ago | sfchronicle.com | Esther Mobley

Deutsch Family Wine and Spirits, which produces the popular Josh Cellars, employed two executives who have pleaded guilty to bribery. Esther Mobley/S.F. ChronicleTwo California wine executives pleaded guilty to bribing a powerful alcohol distributor and a retailer to promote their products in exchange for approximately $360,000 in gift cards, luxury watches, golf trips and baseball tickets.

2 weeks ago | sfchronicle.com | Esther Mobley

The bottles of Second Cheapest Wine, a new private label from Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, all cost $4.99. Provided by Grocery OutletThe prices are outrageous: $1.49 for laundry detergent; 99 cents for a box of Cheez-Its; $5.99 for a pound and a half of fish. They could only come from one Bay Area store. Grocery Outlet Bargain Market, headquartered in Emeryville, has always done brisk business with sub-$10 wine.

2 weeks ago | sfchronicle.com | Esther Mobley |Jess Lander

Carlton McCoy Jr., CEO of Lawrence Wine Estates, at the Brendel tasting room in downtown Napa in 2023, less than a year before it closed. Lauren Segal/For the S.F. Chronicle 2023Just seven years after a surprising billionaire investor began buying up a series of major Napa Valley wineries, funding flashy remodels and installing high-profile winemakers, cracks are emerging in his ambitious empire.

2 weeks ago | sfchronicle.com | Esther Mobley

Wine entrepreneur Cameron Hughes, seen at his former San Francisco home in 2020, sold his company De Négoce to Martin Ray Winery for $12.5 million. Now Martin Ray is suing him. Liz Hafalia/S.F. Chronicle 2020A legal battle between two Bay Area wine companies hinges in part on a word that may sound esoteric to the general public but is familiar to anyone in the wine industry: négociant. The French term refers to a merchant who buys grapes or wine and then bottles it under their own label.

3 weeks ago | sfchronicle.com | Esther Mobley

Alexa Stalsberg, Jennifer Rupey and Katherine Wylie drink cold glasses of red wine at Bodega, a wine bar in North Beach, in 2023. Michaela Vatcheva/Special to The ChronicleThe chilled red is unstoppable. Even at a time when Bay Area restaurants are seeing lagging red wine sales, the chilled-red niche appears to be thriving. Many establishments report that anything marked as “chilled red” on a menu becomes their most in-demand wine — notable continuity for a category that’s so malleable.