Foley Family Wines makes Sonoma home
Tim Matz, president of Foley Family Wines, which recently purchased Sebastiani Vineyards and Winery, announced this week the completion of the company's organizational structure, with its administrative home base to be the newly acquired Sonoma (Sebastiani) offices.
Matz said the new name (formerly Foley Wine Group) reflects "the emphasis on family ownership and entrepreneurial spirit of Bill Foley." He added that the company is family-held, as was Sebastiani, and it is Foley's intention to retain the family-winery culture that has existed at Sebastiani since its founding. To that end, the company will continue to produce Sebastiani Wines employing most of the key staff members from Sebastiani, including Mark Lyon, their winemaker for 20 years, and his assistant, Matt Michael. John Calmeyer, who has been director of marketing for Sebastiani since 2007, has been appointed director of marketing and public relations for the new company.
Other longtime Sebastiani staffers staying on include Paul Bergna, who has been named executive vice president operations for Foley Family wines, and cellarmaster Ray Barrachi. Not only are most of the current Sebastiani employees staying on, but Matz also indicated that future plans call for the expansion of bottling and possibly other winery operations by bringing in other Foley brands to the Sonoma facility. He said that the winery and surrounding Wine Country region, was rich in talented, experienced people, and it makes the ideal headquarters for the new Foley Family operation.
Foley, founder and executive chairman of Fidelity National Information Services, a global provider of core processing for financial institutions and owner of Chicago Title Insurance Company, founded the Foley Wine Group in 1996. He is a West Point graduate who served in the U.S. Air Force, and holds an MBA from Seattle University and a law degree from the University of Washington. He and his wife, Carol, have four children and are active philanthropists in many causes, especially those in support of children's education. In addition to his love of wine making, he is an avid golfer and in 2004, was ranked by Golf Digest as one of top five executive golfers in the world.
Matz indicated that both Foley and the rest of his Sonoma-based management team intend to be active in Sonoma Valley, continuing the tradition of Sebastiani's involvement in local business, civic and charity work. "We're willing to meet with local groups with an interest in working with us. We want to be a part of this community," he added. Matz, a Napa resident, was born and raised in the Midwest, earning his BA at Kent State and his MBA at the University of Kentucky. He has worked in the winery business since 1985, and even spent four years in Ireland as president of Kendall Jackson's international wine division.
Calmeyer is also a veteran of the wine business, having started in the tasting room of Rodney Strong's Sonoma Vineyards in 1980. He has worked in executive marketing positions for a host of wineries, and just before joining Sebastiani two years ago, worked as director of sales and marketing for Stags Leap Wine Cellars.
In addition to the Sebastiani wines, the Foley Family Wines portfolio includes Lincourt Winery, Foley Estates Vineyard and Winery and Firestone Winery in Santa Barbara County, Merus Winery in the Napa Valley and Three Rivers Winery in Walla Walla, Wash.
In announcing the new name for his wine group, Foley stated this week, "We look forward to continuing to be an integral part of the community in Sonoma. In just four weeks since the close of the sale of Sebastiani Vineyards and Winery, we have completed our organizational structure, made enormous progress toward integrating our inventory, sales management and accounting systems, renamed our company, created our new logo and introduced our mission statement and vision to our employees. Last week, we held our first annual national sales meeting in Sonoma and Los Olivos. I am immensely proud of the people that make up this organization and their hard work and professionalism that have resulted in these remarkable achievements. Foley Family Wines is now positioned to be an important part of the global wine industry in the super- and ultra-premium categories," said Foley.
"Our growth will be based on the strengths of our family of wineries and people, and I will continue to augment that growth with further additions to the portfolio as opportunities present themselves."