Partial report from a pay site:
Screaming Eagle Sold
Exclusive: Owner Jean Phillips discloses news in a letter to Wine Spectator
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Screaming Eagle, the darling of the Napa Valley cult Cabernets, has been sold by founder Jean Phillips to Santa Barbara-based money manager Charles Banks and his business partner, entrepreneur Stanley Kroenke. Financial details of the deal, which was concluded last week, were not disclosed.
Banks, 38, is the president of CSI Capital Management, based in San Francisco. Kroenke is a real-estate developer and the owner of the Denver Nuggets basketball team and the Colorado Avalanche hockey franchise ... wife, Ann Walton Kroenke, is one of the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune, but Banks specified that this is his and Kroenke's investment and does not involve the Walton family....
The 60-acre property, located in the prime Oakville appellation, could be worth as much as $300,000 an acre ... The vineyard, with its rocky, well-drained soils, is located in a sweet spot for ripening Cabernet. The winery, inventory and, perhaps most important, the value of the brand would all add to the total. Wine Spectator estimates the deal could be worth $20 million to $30 million or more.