O'Neill Launches Luxury Division with Acquisition of Ram's Gate Winery

LARK­SPUR, Calif., May 22, 2024 — O’Neill Vint­ners & Dis­tillers, a Cer­ti­fied B Cor­po­ra­tion, announced the acqui­si­tion of lux­u­ry wine estate Ram’s Gate Win­ery in Sono­ma, Calif. O’Neill Vint­ners & Dis­tillers Founder and CEO Jeff O’Neill has been a co-own­er of the brand since 2011, and now takes com­plete own­er­ship of the brand and prop­er­ty, cre­at­ing a new lux­u­ry wine division.

Found­ed in 2011, Ram’s Gate Win­ery has long been rec­og­nized for extra­or­di­nary Pinot Noir, Chardon­nay and cool cli­mate Syrah. With unpar­al­leled archi­tec­tur­al beau­ty, refined hos­pi­tal­i­ty and out­stand­ing culi­nary expe­ri­ences, Ram’s Gate Win­ery has become a world class des­ti­na­tion. The organ­i­cal­ly farmed 125-acre estate is locat­ed 45 min­utes north of San Fran­cis­co and serves as the sym­bol­ic gate­way to Sono­ma Wine Country.

Lead­ing the lux­u­ry wine port­fo­lio, O’Neill has expand­ed its exec­u­tive team and hired Maeve Pes­quera, Exec­u­tive Vice Pres­i­dent – Lux­u­ry. ​“We are thrilled to add Maeve to the tal­ent­ed team of indi­vid­u­als at O’Neill Vint­ners & Dis­tillers,” com­ment­ed Jeff O’Neill. ​“Her focused expe­ri­ence in lux­u­ry brands across com­pet­i­tive and com­plex ver­ti­cals will be a tremen­dous asset to our orga­ni­za­tion, espe­cial­ly in lead­ing and grow­ing our lux­u­ry wine port­fo­lio for years to come. Bring­ing Ram’s Gate into our port­fo­lio is a nat­ur­al step as we launch this division.”

Pes­quera is an accom­plished and inno­v­a­tive lux­u­ry brand exec­u­tive with proven suc­cess in cre­ation and imple­men­ta­tion of brand, retail and cul­ture strat­e­gy, deliv­er­ing flaw­less tac­ti­cal exe­cu­tion, impact­ful results and prof­it gen­er­a­tion, most recent­ly as Senior Vice Pres­i­dent with DAOU Fam­i­ly Estates. In her role, she will pro­vide strate­gic lead­er­ship and con­tin­ue devel­op­ment of the O’Neill lux­u­ry port­fo­lio through acqui­si­tions and the cre­ation of new, inno­v­a­tive brands.

“I am delight­ed to embark on this jour­ney with such a remark­able team, ded­i­cat­ed to redefin­ing lux­u­ry for the future,” shared Pes­quera. ​“O’Neill’s focus on merg­ing regen­er­a­tive farm­ing with the evolv­ing needs of the mod­ern con­sumer promis­es to set new stan­dards for sus­tain­abil­i­ty and excel­lence in the wine industry.”