Seattle’s Precept Wine & Spirits announced Friday that it has purchased the Santa Barbara-based Miller Family Wine Company’s portfolio of premium and national wine brands. The acquisition marks Precept’s first investment into California wines.

Included in the deal are brand trademarks, case goods, bulk wine and a private label business. Among the easily recognized labels are Butternut — the largest-volume brand — the no-alcohol Hand on Heart, Ballard Lane, and J. Wilkes, according to a news release.

Not included in the purchase are the Miller family’s renowned estate vineyards, Santa Maria’s Bien Nacido and French Camp in Paso Robles, from which many other winemakers source grapes.

Production, sales and tasting for the Miller Family’s own Bien Nacido Estate label are based on the vineyard on Rancho Tepesquet Road east of Santa Maria.

The J. Wilkes brand of wine, long part of the Miller Family Wine Company portfolio, is among the labels the family has sold to Precept Wine & Spirits.
The J. Wilkes brand of wine, long part of the Miller Family Wine Company portfolio, is among the labels the family has sold to Precept Wine & Spirits. Credit: Laurie Jervis / Noozhawk file photo

Precept will utilize grapes from Bien Nacido and French Camp for the existing brands included in the acquisition, according to the news release.

“Having known and worked with Precept for many years, we are thrilled that they will carry on the legacy of the California portfolio of wines that we have built,” said Nicholas Miller, chief sales and marketing officer of Miller Family Wine Company.

“The Miller Family Wine Company represents generations of craftmanship and quality, and we are honored to carry that legacy forward,” said Andrew Browne, CEO of Precept Wine & Spirits.

“The brand portfolio is a natural fit for Precept, as a first substantial investment in California and we’re eager to build upon the outstanding reputation these brands have earned with consumers in their longstanding histories.”

Among the labels in Precept’s portfolio are House Wine, Gruet Winery and Browne Family Vineyards. Founded in 2003, Precept’s wineries earn 90-plus scores and have garnered more than 1,200 combined “Best Buys” from various wine critics, according to the news release.

Following the 2023 harvest, the Miller Family Wine Company closed its longtime Santa Maria facility after expressing frustration with Santa Barbara County’s regulatory agencies, and moved wine production to space in an existing site in Northern California, Miller said at the time.

Five generations of his family have been involved in various aspects of agriculture after entering the wine industry via viticulture in the 1970s.

Laurie Jervis can be reached at winecountrywriter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are her own.