Latest news with #Ravenswood
San Francisco Chronicle
15-05-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
It sat vacant for years. Will this famed Wine Country estate finally get its second chance?
It was once among Sonoma's most popular wineries. Yet the former home of California Zinfandel pioneer Ravenswood has been vacant for years, one of the dozens of casualties of embattled real estate developer Kenneth Mattson, who was investigated by the FBI and accused of defrauding investors in 2024. But earlier this year, wine conglomerate Gallo resurrected the famed Ravenswood brand after a five-year hiatus — and now, the derelict winery has a shot at renewal, too. The 23-acre estate at 18701 Gehricke Road in Sonoma is back on the market, listed at $5.3 million. Located just over a mile from the Sonoma Plaza, the property includes the stone Ravenswood production facility and tasting room, plus approximately 10 acres of vineyards planted to Zinfandel, Merlot and other varieties. Realtor Mark Stornetta, the agent representing the Ravenswood property, did not respond to the Chronicle's request for comment. The listing comes weeks after a bankruptcy court judge approved the sale of over 150 commercial and residential properties in Sonoma County and beyond, which are owned by subsidiaries and affiliates of LeFever Mattson, the real estate investment company founded by Mattson and his longtime business partner Tim LeFever. The former partners, who had amassed a real estate portfolio valued at about $400 million, are engaged in a contentious legal battle and the controversy erupted to include an FBI probe and several additional lawsuits from investors accusing them of fraud. In September, LeFever Mattson and 57 of its entities filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy; proceeds of the real estate sales, including Ravenswood, will be used to pay off lenders and hundreds of investors. Founded in 1976 by winemaker Joel Peterson, Ravenswood specialized in big, single-vineyard Zinfandels and quickly became one of Sonoma County's most notable wine brands. But the winery was acquired by Constellation Brands in 2001 and Ravenswood's stellar reputation faltered under the conglomerate's ownership. Constellation later sold the brand to competitor Gallo as part of the $810 million blockbuster deal that included 30 low-end wine and spirits brands. Before the deal was finalized in 2021, the Ravenswood tasting room closed and the property was sold to Sonoma's Best Hospitality Group, one of Mattson's many companies. Ravenswood was one of several wine-related entities that Mattson, once poised to become a Wine Country power player, compiled during his Sonoma County buying spree. It was meant to be the future home of two brands: a new winery called Harrow Cellars and Sojourn Cellars, a small Sonoma Pinot Noir producer that the group purchased later that year. According to the listing, Sonoma County approved Sonoma's Best's application to revitalize and expand the property. But construction never got underway. Ravenswood remained boarded up and untouched, as if it were frozen in time. Now, its fate awaits its next buyer.
News.com.au
08-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
It's Queensland's time to shine as gold prices soar
Market volatility has pushed the gold price to A$5269/oz Spotlight is on domestic gold plays in Queensland QXR has 100,000ha of gold projects in the Drummond Basin Market volatility has pushed the gold price to record highs in both US and Australian dollar terms, as investors pile into safe haven bullion. The price is sitting at a pretty at US$3403/oz (or A$5269/oz at the time of writing) and is predicted to rise even further. Goldman Sachs is firmly in the bull camp, forecasting US$3700/oz by year end and US$4000/oz by mid-2026. JP Morgan even reckons it will blast past those predictions by the middle of next year. And with rising recession risks, worsening US-China trade tensions, and a global economy that's starting to wobble under the weight of tariffs, they could be right. Today we're bring the focus home to Australia, looking at domestic gold projects, particularly in Queensland. The Sunshine State is better known for its coal endowment, but is home to the Ravenswood mine, which produces around 200,000oz annually. That operation is up for sale by Indonesia's Golden Energy and Owen Hegarty's EMR Capital for about $2bn, with Indonesia's United Tractors or ASX listed Regis Resources (ASX:RRL) regarded among the frontrunners according to The Australian's Dataroom section. This has drawn the attention of investors and explorers alike to Queensland, where current gold prices and historic underinvestment in exploration has spurred a swathe of activity. Key Queensland explorers and developers QX Resources (ASX:QXR) holds 100,000 hectares of gold ground within the fertile Drummond Basin of Central Queensland. Around 85,800ha are held 100% by the company with the remaining 11,500ha on a JV (QXR 70%) with Zamia Resources. The region has 8.5Moz gold endowment and a long history of ongoing mining, with potential for epithermal gold-silver deposits. So far, the Big Red project is looking the most promising, with trenching in the March quarter defining two gold anomalous zones over 650m and potentially up to 1200m long. Best result included 9m at 5.9g/t gold, with a drill target ready to roll once the right weather conditions roll in. QXR believes Big Red may be similar to the nearby Twin Hills deposit, which hosts 1Moz (23.1Mt and 1.5g/t gold) and Lone Sister, which hosts 480,000oz (12.5Mt at 1.2g/t gold). Not to mention, the company has two gold mines on its grounds which closed when bullion was fetching less than $500/oz. With prices more than 10 times higher there is plenty of motivation to explore for extensions that could help reopen those deposits in a more attractive economic environment. Gold the perfect copper sidekick With a gold price like that, it's no surprise that QMines (ASX:QML) jumped at the chance to acquire Mount Mackenzie, which contains 129,000oz gold and 862,000oz silver within shouting distance of its Develin Creek copper project. QML is on its way to becoming a 10,000–20,000tpa copper equivalent producer with a pre-feasibility study last year indicating its flagship asset at Mount Chalmers near Rockhampton could be turned into a 10.4-year project costing $191m with a 1.8-year payback and NPV of $373m. And metal prices are giving the company a tailwind, particularly for gold, with the plan now to incorporate Mount Mackenzie into the Mount Chalmers mine plan. 'There's two deposits, with quite a bit of drilling down to 150m and it's just wide open everywhere,' managing director Andrew Sparke said. 'There's been a lot of sunk capital, there's about 60,000m of historic drilling, scoping and pre-feasibility studies have been completed so it's quite advanced.' But what really caught the company's eye is that the scoping study had been done at $2000/oz. 'At A$5200/oz we saw a really good opportunity to upgrade those studies and incorporate them into our existing Mount Chalmers mine plan,' Sparke said. 'We see a lot of upside potential extending the know deposits down plunge and along strike.' A PFS with an updated resource is in the works, which along with Develin Creek will double the scale of the Mount Chalmers PFS. 'This will be a nationally significant scale copper and gold operation,' Sparke said. 'We're also very well priced, QMines really is the next copper and gold producer off the rank, and so there's tremendous leverage here from a really low entry point into cashflow in the short to medium term. 'I really think we're going to see outsized returns in this junior/mid-tier copper development space. 'I think in the medium term copper really is the value bet. Gold has run, and copper is generally the next off the rank.' Cannindah Resources (ASX:CAE) Another copper company on the gold train is Cannindah, which last month found high-grade gold at its Mt Cannindah copper-gold project – including a stunning near 97g/t intercept. The company has emerged as one of the most intriguing pure-play copper explorers on the ASX in recent times – even Chile's State copper giant Codelco has been keeping tabs – but now has the added advantage of high grade gold and silver being present at the Sunshine State deposit. Recent gold hits that piqued the company's interest ranged from around 3g/t to 96g/t in some drill holes. While copper remains the key focus for Cannindah, the gold opportunity will be followed up – particularly with the precious metal trading at record highs. That could make project economics for the copper much more attractive, with the gold hits also pointing to the large scale potential of the broader system. 'The copper will remain the focus but it will certainly be something we look at in terms of the larger scale system at the project,' managing director Tom Pickett said. 'Typically, when you see these gold coming in with the copper, it can point to a larger scale porphyry system which is what we've always been suggesting is the case at Mt Cannindah.' Porphyry systems usually occur in clusters, making eventual mining more feasible and cost-effective. That would be another bonus for Mt Cannindah, which already holds a resource of 14.5Mt at 1.09% copper equivalent and is similar in mineralisation style to giant orebodies like Newmont's Cadia. 'It you're going to invest dollars in the ground and you're also seeing some gold coming into it, it just gives you a higher level of confidence,' Pickett said. 'I think the gold price is good for the industry because it will add a bit of momentum to exploration activity which hopefully translates into some more mining activity and good action in Queensland.' Pacgold (ASX:PGO) Just this week, PGO delivered a maiden resource for the Alice River project, consisting of 12.2Mt at 1.2g/t gold for 474,000oz gold at 0.5g/t Au cut-off within a global resource of 26.7Mt at 1.01g/t gold for 854,000oz gold. Of that resource, 5.6Mt at 1.4g/t gold for 250,000oz is in the indicated category, demonstrating potential for significant upside and near-term resource expansion and consolidation. 'Having now confirmed the mineralisation style is robust, utilising an interpretation of broader more continuous gold zones, we have been able to demonstrate very large tonnages of gold mineralisation with approximately 500,000oz gold contained within the first 400m from surface making a bulk tonnage open pit operation an obvious first option,' MD Matthew Boyes said on Tuesday. A 10,000m RC drilling program intended to covert inferred resources to a higher confidence category is ongoing. It certainly looks promising, with this being the first full drill season for three years and only 5% of the mineralised strike drill tested to date. Sunshine Metals (ASX:SHN) The company has quietly built a resource in excess of 900,000oz on a gold equivalent basis at its Ravenswood Consolidated project in North Queensland, near the historic gold mining town of Charters Towers and on the doorstep of the multi-million ounce Ravenswood gold mine. The company has caught the eye of Hedley Widdup's Lion Selection Group (ASX:LSX), and the innovative approach taken by its managing director Dr Damien Keys, who brings 'been there, done that' credibility after his involvement in Spectrum Metals' remarkable Penny West gold discovery in WA, the catalyst for a $208 million takeover by Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS). Who else has gold in QLD? Zenith Minerals (ASX:ZNC) has the Dulcie Far North (DFN) and Red Mountain projects, having sold their stake in the Kavaklitepe gold project in Türkiye last quarter to streamline the portfolio to focus on domestic gold opportunities. A 40 hole RC drilling program just wrapped up at DFN aimed at expanding the resource with an upgrade to the existing 5.14Mt at 1.30g/t gold for 210,000 ounces of gold resource expected in H2 2025. At Red Mountain, the company secured a $275,000 grant from the Queensland Government's Collaborative Exploration Initiative (CEI) for 400m of diamond drilling – aimed at unlocking the project's primary gold potential, with associated copper and molybdenum mineralisation at depth. Ark Mines (ASX:AHK) Ark has been focused on its Sandy Mitchell rare earths deposit in Queensland, but this week announced high-grade gold in rock chips from its Pluton project in North Queensland, where it's been exploring while the wet season restricts access to Sandy Mitchell. Rock chip sampling returned grades up to 25g/t gold and 34g/t silver. 'What's not to love about 25 grams per tonne?' executive director Ben Emery said. 'Even the 3 gram per tonne sample average is very nice. 'There's a lot of work still to be done at Pluton and we don't want it to distract from Sandy Mitchell and the great story Ark is developing there, but Pluton has potential that we can't ignore and makes a good wet season field option.' The company is focused on the Dittmer project, where it has successfully identified an extension to the historic high-grade orebody and is currently engaged in studies with the aim of re-opening the mine, which operated during from the 1930s to 1950s at a reported gold head grade of 151g/t gold. Prior to 2020 when BMR acquired the tenements, the mine area had never been drill tested, and drilling by the company to date has recognised that the historically mined Duffer Lode has been displaced at depth with a repetition identified within 30m of the historic mine workings. Ballymore is systematically applying modern exploration methods to test these historic gold fields with the aim of identifying extensions to the historic workings that provide bulk gold and copper targets. Stage five underground drilling is underway, targeting infill as well as step-out drilling around the historic mine. The company only picked up its QLD gold assets – Blackjack and Far Fanning projects – in November last year but has wasted no time accelerating plans to get into production. Far Fanning has a resource of 2.3Mt at 1.84g/t gold for 138,000oz of gold, while the 340,000tpa Blackjack plant is on care and maintenance. Refurbishment work is underway, with all components scheduled for delivery by May 2025. Mechanical completion of the Blackjack plant remains on schedule for Q2 2025, with commissioning activities to commence immediately after, keeping NMR on track to restart gold production in Q3 2025. An honourable mention also goes to Antares Metals (ASX:AM5), which has also got copper-with-a-hint-of-gold at their Surprise project in Mt Isa, where up to 1.3g/t gold was returned in first phase drilling. 1500m of phase 2 RC drilling is now underway. And, while primarily a silver explorer, Maronan Metals (ASX:MMA) also has copper and has reported hits of up to 1.85g/t gold at its namesake project in QLD.
San Francisco Chronicle
21-04-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
A new style of wine tasting room is popping up all over the Bay Area
Passaggio Wines is suddenly the busiest bar in town — except it's technically not a bar. Located at the Jack London Village, the historic saw mill-turned-shopping center in the sleepy Sonoma County city of Glen Ellen, Passaggio is a wine tasting collective that's posing as the hot new local watering hole. For years, the village's old-timey and Golden Gate Bridge-hued compound has failed to lure in many tourists on their way to the nearby state park or one of the area's many wine estates. But now, Passaggio's packed and lively creekside patio is compelling weekend drivers to pull over. Once inside, they can choose from dozens of wines from seven, sustainability-minded Sonoma producers they've likely never heard of. Rebranded to 'Passaggio and Company' earlier this year, the space is just one in an exciting new wave of collective wine tasting rooms, or winery co-ops, spurred by the industry's downturn. Wineries are desperate to market their wines yet minimize costs. And while the concept — a group of small wineries, typically ones that can't afford to open their own tasting room, join forces in one setting — has been around for the better part of a decade, this resurgence looks different. The newest collectives are less traditional and tourist-centric than in the past. While they are licensed as tasting rooms, they function more like an informal wine bar. Standard wine tastings have been 'going by the wayside,' said Passaggio founder Cindy Cosco, who works with several grape varieties, like Tannat, Aglianico and Alicante Bouschet, that are hard to find in California. She moved Passaggio into the village two years ago, and recently invited some like-minded wineries to join her. 'Locals just want to come hang out and have a good time gathering with friends,' she continued. 'I'm very excited about what we're creating here. It's bringing a lot of people into this complex.' At Passaggio, where a sign out front reads 'wine bar,' you order by the glass (from $10) or bottle, not flight. No one will come to your table and interrupt your conversation to talk about soil types, brix levels or malolactic fermentation. You won't be told what you should be smelling or tasting. Instead, you can relax on the patio and listen to the babble of the creek — or live music if it's a Saturday. Kids and dogs are welcome. Bring your own food, or order from Yeti, the charming Indian-Napalese restaurant that opened in the village in 2008. Some days, the winemakers mingle and share their stories. One of those winemakers is Joel Peterson, who founded California Zinfandel pioneer Ravenswood in 1976. Peterson sold the winery in 2001 and launched Once and Future, a return to his original Ravenswood vision of small lot, single-vineyard Zinfandel crafted with old world techniques, in 2014. (He also recently helped Gallo relaunch the Ravenswood brand after a five-year hiatus.) 'These long, sit-down tastings that last two to three hours have always mystified me,' Peterson said. 'It's antithetical to sharing wine.' Passaggio's model, however, reminds him of the early days of the California wine boom. 'Sonoma was a very different place when I entered the business. We were the 30 musketeers — all for one and one for all. We shared equipment, we'd share ideas and there was more closeness among the wineries,' he said. 'The wine business has gotten quite corporate and it's a very different feel than one guy at a winery with a determination to do something special. This begins to set the tone for that again.' Ten minutes away and one block off the Sonoma Plaza, another tasting collective has 'bar' in its name and looks exactly like one. Dos' Bar, which opened in 2024, is comprised of six natural wine and cider brands (with three more joining soon). The group includes hybrid grape variety specialist North American Press and Caleb Leisure Wines, whose namesake founder was inspired by the Republic of Georgia and ferments his wines in clay vessels known as qvevri. Dos' Bar's design was inspired by Gold Country saloons, like Stormy's in Petaluma or Sonoma's Swiss Hotel. 'That's the era where the spirit was most intense. Everybody was feeling inspired and making things,' said Dos' co-founder and cidermaker Aaron Brown. 'The tasting room (typically has) sectional couches, LED lighting and a hushed atmosphere where someone is hovering over you. We wanted a place that feels like a pub in Europe or a coffee shop.' The goal with Dos' was to ramp up the presence of Sonoma's natural wine scene beyond Scribe Winery, now open to members only, and Valley Bar + Bottle, where you 'can't just hang out indefinitely,' said Brown, because it's a restaurant. 'We were sort of walking around invisibly in a place where our wines are from, but economically, none of us could do this on our own,' he continued. 'We wanted to do something that we could manage ourselves.' But Dos' evolved to solve another problem. 'There's nowhere to hang out. Sonoma lacked a place for people to be,' Brown continued. 'Really, Dos' is beyond wine. When we have events, it's maxed out. It's really fun to see the different walks of Sonoma intersecting.' Dos' past winemaker events have included local artists, a tarot card reader, musicians and food popups, like Lo-Fi Oyster Co. and mortadella sandwich purveyor Eugene's. The tasting room has hosted industry nights, Español Night (where patrons were encouraged to speak Spanish in homage to Sonoma's rich Mexican heritage), pumpkin carving and equinox celebrations. Yet while these collectives are intentionally bucking tradition, private tastings with the winemakers can be booked in advance. Since joining Passaggio, which also offers a mixed wine flight ($25), Topophilia Wine Co. founder Jess Wade said that with one exception, he's had 'at least one person in each group' join his wine club after a tasting. 'I think people appreciate a more relaxed, casual environment,' he said. 'There's not this stuffiness about things. Wine doesn't have to be that.' The River Club Napa, which opened last summer, feels the most traditional of the newcomers in setup, as seated tastings are offered by appointment. Yet the industrial, riverfront space — which houses just two wine brands, Paper Planes and Belong Wine Co. — is an antidote to the stereotypical Napa Valley tasting room: It's affordable, it doesn't pour Cabernet Sauvignon and it welcomes children, even providing a play area. Like its cohorts, the River Club gets creative with events; most recently, it launched 'Office Hours' on Thursdays, which turns the tasting room into a makeshift coworking space with wines by the glass. This summer, another co-op tasting room will open in Lafayette, down the block from the new Horn Barbecue. Named Local Vines, it will focus on wines made from the small and little-known Lamorinda wine region, which stretches from the backside of the Berkeley Hills to the Walnut Creek border. Local Vines will share the space with an incubator kitchen, geared at helping 'young chefs trying to get their businesses off the ground,' said Local Vines general manager Piettro Buittitta, who also owns Prima Materia Vineyard & Winery. Buttitta closed his Oakland tasting room earlier this year, where he regularly hosted dinner parties, and can envision bringing those to Local Vines. He's belonged to a few collectives throughout his career and recalled that in the early days of the trend, things were 'very basic, just the nuts and bolts of 'Here are five wines.'' 'I think there was a different mindset then,' he continued. 'Maybe you didn't realize 15 years ago that you could have a Vietnamese street food event going on at the same time (as wine tasting), but there's a very valuable community aspect to cross-pollination.'
