Sonoma Valley’s Gundlach Bundschu, California’s oldest continuously owned family winery, is poised to soon lose that designation under a bankruptcy restructuring that advanced this week.
The winery, which began operating in the late 1850s, is the latest among a string of well-known wine producers in Sonoma and Napa counties to hit the brink of insolvency, struggling with the same downward trends in wine consumption that threaten players large and small across the region and state.
The family-run Bundschu Co. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday, Sept. 23, adding another ripple to that global shakeout.
The company became overleveraged in a recent acquisition, according to representatives. Negotiations are underway with a…