Sebastiani will stop making wine in Sonoma; tasting room to stay open

Sebastiani Winery, which has made wine continuously for 118 years, will close its historic Sonoma facility and move all production to Healdsburg, according to owner Foley Family Wines. 

There will be layoffs but the tasting room will reportedly remain open. 

About 160,000 cases of Sebastiani wine are made annually. Production will now be done at Ferrari-Carano winery, which Foley bought last year with the idea of consolidation. 

“Our decision to move production away from Sebastiani has been under consideration for some time, and was a key factor in our acquisition of Ferrari-Carano, whose state-of-the-art facility offers us additional production capacity with much more efficiency,” Foley president Shawn Schiffer told The Wine Spectator.

The Sonoma winery — production, tasting room complex, parking — occupies prime acreage of land at Fourth Street East at East Spain Street, and along Lovall Valley Road. But, Shiffer told the Wine-Searcher, “We have not considered any other options for the rest of the site at present.”

The size and layout of the facility, its location within a residential neighborhood, and ongoing concerns about the environmental impact all played a part in the decision, Schiffer said.

Foley bought Sebastiani from members of the founder’s family in 2008.