Very few attendees at a recent webinar had ever done a valuation of a winery. The speakers, Joe Orlando (Exit Strategies Group) and Bradford MacLane (MacLane and Co.), did an excellent job of giving the ins and outs of appraising this type of operation. What’s more, they presented a detailed case study of a winery valuation that included an Excel handout and a full sample valuation report.

ESG concern: The audience posed one interesting question: Are wineries becoming certified as organic and what are the financial challenges of this? The speakers remarked that any certification involves cost, and it means processing the application and making sure that all the requirements are being met. Some wineries want to identify themselves as organic or have that certification as a differentiator in their marketing. But the bulk of the wineries that are selling ultra-premium or higher-price-point wine are not necessarily getting that certification, they observed.

This is not to say that these firms are not concerned about environmental issues. Most, if not all, of the wineries that grow their own grapes have some type of organic focus. They realize that they cannot disregard the land because you would effectively be lowering the value of your land by introducing such elements as pesticides or similar things. The land can have value for a very long time, and the vines can produce high-quality grapes beyond their sort of useful life if you look at it from a financial reporting perspective, they said.

A recording of the webinar and the handouts are available if you click here (free for holders of the BVR Training Passport Pro).