Looks like Brown-Forman's decision to downsize its wine operation by selling off a lot of its properties made sound business sense.
Funny, I can remember when Brown-Forman got INTO wine, around the time I started writing about wine for the old Louisville Times. One or two other local distilleries seeking to diversify into wine had crashed and burned, but Brown-Forman avoided that end. I was never really enthusiastic about most of their properties (although Sonoma-Cutrer remains a favorite), but they were probably smart to stick with easy-drinking, middle-of-the-road labels.
Here's the Wall Street Journal's analysis ...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 25448.html