Californias oldest continuously family-owned winery announces Chapter 11 bankruptcy after 168-year run
California’s oldest continuously family-owned winery has survived earthquakes, Prohibition, wildfires and a pandemic — but a crushing pile of debt has finally forced the 168-year-old Sonoma institution into bankruptcy court.Gundlach Bundschu Winery announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as the sixth-generation family behind the historic estate scrambles to restructure its finances and potentially bring in a new investor.The winery, founded in 1858, stressed that its doors aren’t closing.Wine will continue flowing at its sprawling Sonoma estate while the bankruptcy process plays out.“For six generations, our family believed that Gundlach Bundschu is more than a winery.
It is a core part of Sonoma Valley,” said Jeff Bundschu, who operates the business alongside his sister, Katie.The filing comes after a brutal stretch for the California wine industry and following Gundlach Bundschu’s accumulating a debt load it says became impossible to sustain in the post-pandemic economy.The family traces its connection to the property back to 1858, when the land was acquired from the son-in-law of famed California military commander and politician Gen.Mariano Vallejo.Since then, “GunBun,” as the winery is affectionately known, has endured almost everything imaginable.It weathered the phylloxera infestation that ravaged vineyards in the 1870s and the catastrophic 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which destroyed three family homes and a staggering 1 million gallons of wine.The winery later made it through Prohibition, wars, recessions, devastating wildfires and COVID-19.But its latest financial crisis proved especially difficult.According to the company, its troubles intensified after a major debt-financed acquisition in 2020, just before the pandemic upended the hospitality and wine industries.
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