Smith will also assist Constellation under a consulting winemaker agreement, helping the company further innovate across its wine portfolio.
With Constellation, we don't have to change the company that we are. "But I realized that we would have needed more and more people than our team of seven. "For the winemaking everything remains the same," he said. He expects that Constellation's sales and marketing muscle can help grow the volume. "This is the right time to pass the baton," added Smith. "The idea from the start was that I could always sell them off one at a time." But Constellation wanted all five. "The idea was to have a strong portfolio where each wine was a winner," Smith told Wine Spectator. Wine Spectator scores in recent years have ranged from 87 to 91 points. Velvet Devil stands next with 150,000 cases and Boom Boom Syrah at 42,000 cases. The Riesling, the largest volume of the bunch ($12), reached 198,000 cases in 2014. Smith created these wines as separate brands, beginning with Kung Fu Girl in the 2006 vintage. Altogether, the brands add up to nearly 500,000 cases per year, selling mostly at $12 to $15 a bottle. The deal features five wines that Charles Smith calls "the five core brands" of his company-Kung Fu Girl Riesling, Eve Chardonnay, Boom Boom Syrah, Velvet Devil Merlot and Chateau Smith Cabernet Sauvignon. With this deal, Constellation says it will become the second largest supplier of Washington state wines. The sale is expected to close later this month. Constellation Brands added to its burgeoning collection of premium wine brands, announcing this morning an agreement to purchase five Washington brands from Charles Smith Wines for $120 million.