Bill Foley and Foley Family Wines, Healdsburg, Calif., announced the purchase of Chalone Estate Vineyard in Monterey County.

Foley Family Wines is acquiring the Chalone Estate Vineyard and Gavilan brands as well as nearly 1,000 contiguous acres, with 240 acres planted to vine, it says. The estate rests on the Gavilan Mountain Range on the north slope of Chalone Peak.

Chalone Estate Vineyard is the sole winery in the Chalone American Viticultural Area (AVA). The Estate wines are sourced from the oldest producing vineyard in Monterey County, including the Estate Chenin Blanc that continues to be produced from plantings going back to 1919, the company says. The wines are 100 percent estate-grown, produced and bottled, and each vintage is crafted to reflect the land on which the vineyards sit, it adds. With its limestone-based soils, Chalone Estate closely resembles traditional French sites. The resulting wines historically have showcased an elegance and mineral composition that was celebrated most famously in the "Judgement of Paris" in 1976, when California wines were tasted blind against top French wines by a panel of wine experts, the company says. Three of the Top 5 white wines were from California and Chalone Estate's 1974 vintage Chardonnay placed third, it adds.

"We have incredible wineries and vineyards stretching from Lincourt in Solvang, California up to Three Rivers in Walla Walla Washington,” Bill Foley said in a statement. “Chalone Estate Vineyard, with its great wines and incredible history, gives our consumers and guests world class wine options along the entire coast."