This just in from the Chronicle. Constellation Brands has agreed to buy several more major labels, including Clos du Bois.

The New York-based company will pay $885 million for the U.S. wine business of Fortune Brands, which also includes the Geyser Peak, Wild Horse (my first Merlot!), Buena Vista Carneros and Gary Farrell labels.

As part of the deal, Constellation will get about 1,500 acres of vineyards in Sonoma and
Napa. The deal will be final by year’s end and builds on its position as the world’s biggest winemaker.

They bought Mondavi in 2004, probably the biggest and most well-known family-owned winery in the country. And the trend continues. Follow the link to read the whole story.

Weeks after Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars sold to big wine companies for $185 million, Central Coast wine pioneer Brooks Firestone announced the sale of his family’s Firestone Vineyard to the Foley Wine Group this afternoon for an undisclosed price.

Before you get your knickers in a twist, let me say that this sale is a bit different. The Firestones and the Foleys have been friends and neighbors for a decade, and the operation is staying local. Bill Foley acquired the J. Carey Cellars property from the Firestone family in 1997, which became Lincourt Vineyards. They have history.

The acquisition includes the Firestone Vineyard and Prosperity Wines brands, along with the Santa Ynez Valley winery and 480 acres of land, inclusive of 380 vineyard acres. The Firestone family will retain ownership of Curtis Winery (my fave Syrah!), Firestone Walker Brewing Company and the new family winery in Paso Robles, where I visited Andrew Firestone back in May.

I got the Firestones’ PR rep Christopher Weir on the phone and he told me the deal had been in the works for about three months. The reason they’re retaining their smaller, newer properties is because they “want to continue doing the things they’ve been doing, just less of it,” Christopher told me. It’s sort of a right person at the right time thing.

Here’s a quote from Brooks Firestone, from the press release: “While this was a tough and emotional decision for us, we are energized by the opportunity to more closely focus on our other winemaking and brewing enterprises on the Central Coast.”

There you have it. Firestone Vineyard will be folded into Foley’s small portfolio of estate wineries, with further and hopeful acquisitions in Sonoma, Napa, Oregon and Washington. No significant changes are anticipated in the operations, staffing or distribution of Firestone Vineyard wines.

If you don’t know the history, Firestone Vineyard was founded in 1972 as Santa Barbara County’s first estate winery. William Foley established his Lincourt Vineyards in the Santa Ynez Valley in 1996 and opened Foley Estates Winery in the nearby Santa Rita Hills in 2005.

Sigh.

“Bottle Shock,” the movie about the famed 1976 Judgment of Paris tasting, may be leaving out the red wine that put Napa on the map with Bordeaux, but Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars still made headlines this month. Massive ones.

Pioneer and owner Warren Winiarski sold his family’s winery — with its prime spot on the Silverado Trail, between Napa and Yountville — to joint buyers Marchese Piero Cellars (Italy) and Chateau Ste. Michelle Wine Estates (Washington state) for $185 million.

It was just one in a string of vintners selling their family businesses to the big boys over the past week. Duckhorn Wine Company sold a majority interest to private equity firm GI Partners. And the larger-than-life EJ & Gallo bought Napa’s William Hill Estate and Canyon Road.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a new trend, necessarily. Two years ago, Atlas Peak was sold for $14.2 billion to Fortune Brands as part of a 10-winery deal. And, of course, who could forget the sale of amusement-park-turned Robert Mondavi Winery to Constellation for $1.36 billion in 2004. That started everything.

What’s different now is that family drama, soaring real estate prices and competition from smaller artisan wineries that produce far less wine than these recently-sold properties make it easier to get out, and get out rich. The value segment has also exploded and both brick and mortars and Web sites are devoted to scouring the globe to find the best deals on the best wines money can buy.

This is the way of things. The next generation of small family producers will rise. Folks like Reverie on the Mountain and Orin Swift. Let’s just hope the future cousins of that industry-altering 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon non can live up to the name.

Interesting news today about stalwart, $100-Napa-Cabernet producer Silver Oak Cellars buying Dry Creek’s hipster rebel Roshambo Winery. I profiled Roshambo owner Naomi Brilliant in September and visited her artsy winery the following month. If you haven’t been, imagine a sleek art gallery meets club where the employees have tattoos and patchy facial hair. My friends and I weren’t crazy about the wines, but boy did we admire Brilliant’s business model and marketing savvy: Drag shows, art openings and the slogan, "Fighting for fun in a winey world." After all, it was for us — serious wine drinkers who didn’t wear suits or fanny packs. Well, turns out the world isn’t ready to stop whining, so to speak. Experts have weighed in and I tend to agree on one front: Brilliant, heir to Frank Johnson, went overboard on a showcase winery and tasting room before her brand could build a reputation to cover the costs. Turns out that soon after the winery, which cost $10 million, was built in 2002, the value of the family trust fund behind it began to dip. And dip. What I do not agree with, however, is that Roshambo was too flip, too light and not serious enough for the wines they were making. The wine press is making Silver Oak out to be the Superman of wineries that came and saved little baby Roshambo. After all, they make serious wines for serious people. Well, I love Silver Oak and attend their biannual Cabernet releases but I can tell you that a chunk of their clientele at those parties look and act like anyone at Roshambo. Wine drinkers are getting younger and younger, and they drink everything, gold-trimmed beige labels with cursive writing and wineries named after the rock, paper, scissors game. You can’t blame Roshambo for trying to cement a niche for themselves. I’m just sorry it didn’t work out. I do hope Naomi stays in the wine biz. We need her creativity. As for Silver Oak, it’s been looking for a secondary facility to produce wine following the fire last year that caused $2 million in damages and will put it out of commission for the 2007 harvest. Silver Oak is buying the winery and the acreage surrounding it, but not the brand. So if you have any bottles, hold on to them.