Overview
Bacchus Capital Management is a San Francisco-based investment firm providing strategic capital and making equity investments in United States wineries and wine businesses. Our firm was established in 2007 by Sam Bronfman, Peter Kaufman and Henry Owsley and today is managed by the three founding partners. Mr. Bronfman brings over 30 years of experience in leading several of the largest wine operations in the US, with revenues exceeding $300 million. Messrs. Kaufman and Owsley have over 40 years of combined experience as investment bankers and advisors in the business of solving complex financial challenges.
We are a capital source to our portfolio companies, providing flexible alternative financing as well as offering deep operational expertise and an unparalleled network of distribution relationships. Our portfolio companies are profitable US wineries and wine-related businesses, family owned or privately held, which have iconic winemakers and which demonstrate significant growth potential. Our brands are in the super and ultra-premium end of the wine industry, seeking sales and/or infrastructure growth or needing to manage ownership transitions. Our businesses typically have a track record of profitability and annual shipment volumes of over 10,000 cases per year.
Bacchus Capital Co-Founders (L to R) Peter Kaufman, Sam Bronfman and Henry Owsley at Sbragia Family Vineyards.
The Name
Bacchus, the Thracian god of wine, represents not only the intoxicating power of wine, but also its social and beneficial influences. He is viewed as the promoter of civilization, a lawgiver and lover of peace–as well as the patron deity of agriculture and the theater. He was also known as the Liberator, freeing one from one’s normal self, by madness, ecstasy, or wine. The divine mission of Bacchus was to mingle the music of the flute and to bring an end to care and worry.
