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Magoon winery
sale called offA UST unit scraps the purchase due
By Russ Lynch
to tobacco litigation against
the parent firm
Star-BulletinA wine-making subsidiary of tobacco giant UST Inc. has dropped its plan to buy the 22,000-acre Guenoc Ranch and winery in Northern California from Honolulu-based Magoon Estate Ltd.
Orville T. Magoon, president of Guenoc Winery Inc., said the sale agreement was terminated because of uncertainties faced by UST as a result of litigation against its big United States Tobacco subsidiary.
Greenwich, Conn.-based UST recently lost an antitrust case in Kentucky concerning sales of moist smokeless tobacco and may face hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
The company announced in February that its Stimson Lane Ltd. subsidiary, a producer of wines in Woodinville, Wash., had agreed to buy the Guenoc properties for an undisclosed price.
Magoon Estate acquired the Guenoc Ranch in the 1960s. It consists of 400 acres of vineyards, a winemaking facility and visitor center in Middletown, Calif., and 20,000 acres of grazing land which has potential for the development of more vineyards.
The ranch, 90 miles north of San Francisco became well known in the late 1800s and early 1900s as the residence of actress Lillie Langtry, who produced her own wines there and labeled them with her portrait. The painting is still a feature of the Guenoc label.
