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By Oregon Family Farm Association,
In the latest signs of a struggling wine industry, Pacific Rim Winemakers Inc. filed for bankruptcy March 30, outlining plans in court to liquidate equipment, real estate and inventory to repay creditors, including $100,000 owned to Oregon grape growers, The Portland Business Journal [6] reported. The Mariani family, wine importers in New York, sold Pacific Rim’s rieslings, pinot noirs and pinot gris through Banfi Wines. Its acquisition of Pacific Rim in 2011 from vintner Randall Grahm included a winery lease in Richland, Wash. Six years later, the Marianis bought the Firesteed winery and 30 acres of vineyards near Rickreall in Polk County, 10 miles west of Salem, from Howard Rossbach. He sold his Firesteed label to Vintage Wine Estates in California, which filed bankruptcy in 2024. The Pacific Rim filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of New York attributed struggles in the wine industry in part to inflation, tariffs, oversupply, and changing habits among the younger generation, which is opting to indulge more in craft beer, canned cocktails, hard seltzers and cannabis rather than wine.