Carol invited her friend Tim Allen, the founder of accounting firm AWG (Allen Wine Group) to join her for a conversation about a number of topics in wine industry finance including: the sale of his firm to a national company earlier this year, new rules in accounting that may affect wineries, how he helps his clients with banking relationships, and more. Carol shares her observations about the current state of the wine M&A market.

https://awgwine.com/

Questions? Comments? smallfortunepodcast@gmail.com

Sponsor: Global Wine Partners https://www.globalwinebank.com/

Editor: John Kiernan, The PodHouse Productions

www.thepodhouseproductions.com

Music: Nate Collison

Logo Photography: John Corcoran

When Scott Becker acquired virtual brand Realm Cellars in 2012 the business was heading for bankruptcy, but the brand had a great reputation. In this interview Scott tells the story of getting into the business, which he partially financed by assuming accumulated debts, and how he then found more debts, less cash, and a daily working capital struggle. After the momentum shift for the brand from a 100-point Parker score, the business finally turned the corner. Today, Realm is an estate winery with properties in the important Napa growing areas of Stags Leap, Pritchard Hill, and Coombsville. In the final story of this two-part series, Scott and host Carol Collison talk about Scott’s friendship with the great wine business attorney and Coombsville grape growing pioneer Frank Farella, founder of Farella, Braun + Martel.

https://www.realmcellars.com/

Questions? Comments? smallfortunepodcast@gmail.com

Sponsor: Global Wine Partners https://www.globalwinebank.com/

Editor: John Kiernan, The PodHouse Productions

www.thepodhouseproductions.com

Music: Nate Collison

Logo Photography: John Corcoran

This episode is a re-release of Episode 4 of the Small Fortune podcast that was originally released in September 2023, before host Carol Collison cobbled together a “good enough” recording routine. Her audio is really bad, but Sam sounds great, and the impetus for the original interview, increases in the federal funds rate by the Federal Reserve and how that change ended a transaction that Carol had been working with Sam on as the representative of the Seller. Since growing inflation pressure may cause the Fed to increase rates again, we’re re-releasing it. You will wince when you hear Carol’s questions but hang in there: this episode is mostly very wonderful stories from a talented wine business entrepreneur, Sam Bilbro.

Original episode notes: Sam Bilbro is a 4th generation winemaker and owner of the brand Idlewild which specializes in wines made from Piedmontese varieties grown in and around Northern Sonoma County. Carol and Sam talk about the business case for these niche wines, as well as his thinking behind his retail Italian wine and food shop. They also talk about the business lessons he learned from his father, Chris Bilbro, founder of Marietta Cellars.

https://www.overshinewines.com/

https://ciaobruto.com/

Questions? Comments? smallfortunepodcast@gmail.com

Sponsor: Global Wine Partners https://www.globalwinebank.com/

Editor: John Kiernan, The PodHouse Productions

www.thepodhouseproductions.com

Music: Nate Collison

Logo Photography: John Corcoran