The Wine Knows

Three of the Pacific Northwest's largest wineries have new owners.

Constellation, the world's largest wine company, sold several of its properties to newly formed Ascentia Wine Estates, including Columbia Winery, Covey Run Winery and Ste. Chapelle. All three were owned by Corus Brands before being sold to Constellation in 2001.

-- Columbia was Washington's first winery dedicated to using European wine grapes when it launched in 1962 as Associated Vintners. It was started by a group of University of Washington professors. David Lake arrived in 1979 and was head winemaker until retiring last year.

-- Covey Run started as Quail Run until a lawsuit by a similarly named California winery forced the name change. One of the original owners was Stan Clarke, who passed away last year.

-- Ste. Chapelle is Idaho's oldest and largest winery, started in 1976. Today, it makes more than 150,000 cases of wine, with a focus on Riesling.

Ascentia also picked up a number of top California brands, including Gary Farrell Winery, Buena Vista Carneros, Atlas Peak, Geyser Peak and XYZin. The company is headed by Peter Ekman, former CEO of wine.com.