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CO VER S T OR Y Wineries and growers have their pick from a wide range of lenders who can provide the needed capital for major equipment purchases, developing vineyards or building a winery. short-term debt: working capital for invento- ry, receivables financing, equipment loans for tanks, some people will even put barrels on short-term debt," says William Stevens, divi- sion manager for wine at Silicon Valley Bank. "We also do longer term debt: construction finance and vineyard development." Types of credit Banks and wine industry lenders in gener- al tend to define their customers in terms of case volume and bottle cost, referenc- ing terms like "premium" and "estab- lished" to denote the creditworthiness of the winery borrowers. But ultimately, the creditworthiness of the borrower comes down to the solidity of the business. James Barrett, a vice president and senior relationship manager with Union Bank, said his company provides loans to wineries ranging in size from 10,000 cases per year to 10s of millions of cases. "There's a huge amount of diversity, but I think what you find in our portfolio in terms of the common thread is a good brand that's really well established in the marketplace and has good, competent management," he said. "There's A, B and C credit," says SVB's McMillan. Lenders want the best of it. "Right now everyone's going for A, some are going for B and nobody is going for C." (See "A, B & C credit on page 28.") BYINGTON WINERY Santa Cruz Mountains, CA SONOMA COAST VINEYARD Petaluma, CA Brian Gleason Lic #00825795 Preston Smith Lic #00429862 Kevin Foster Lic #00915709 1101 Fifth Avenue, Suite 230, San Rafael 415.526.7676 2455 Bennett Valley Road Suite C200, Santa Rosa 707.583.8400 MIXED USE DEVELOPMENT Hwy 101, Hopland, CA SCHOOL HOUSE PLAZA 26 WINES & VINES SEPTEMBER 2012 17-ACRE PINOT NOIR VINEYARD & WINERY SITE Russian River Appellation WINE INDUS TR Y FINANCE