Finally, a flip in the winery ownership trend. Last week, five California wine brands were returned to a local company after being orphaned and snatched up by huge beverage companies over the years.

The brands are: Geyser Peak, Atlas Peak, Buena Vista Carneros, Gary Farrell and XYZin. You can read about it in detail here. But the most important thing to take from this news is that the company, Ascentia, will be a stone’s throw from the vineyards that produce the wines. This is the way it should be, but rare. They bought the wineries from Constellation Brands (based in New York) as part of a $209 million deal that includes Washington wineries Columbia and Cove Run and Idaho’s Ste. Chapelle.

Some of these wineries have really suffered as a result of all this back and forth, but I’m confident that under local ownership — Ascentia is based in Healdsburg — they can get back to making the best wine possible.