Signorello Estate Files Chapter 11 Over $36.32M Debt

Signorello Estate Files Chapter 11 Over $36.32M Debt


Debtor(s)	Signorello Estate LP (8 jointly administered entities)
Court	U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of California (Santa Rosa Division)
Case Number	26-10655
Petition Date	August 27, 2026
Judge	Hon. Dennis Montali
DIP Facility	Up to $3.5 million secured superpriority financing from Ashley Cooper and Amar Doman, SOFR + 8.5%, $1 million interim draw (proposed)

Case Snapshot

Wildfire Rebuild and the Path Back to Distress

Raymond Signorello has been sole owner of the Silverado Trail estate since 1995; the family produced its first vintage in 1985. The debtors' brand portfolio includes the ultra-premium Signorello Estate label along with Edge Wines, S Wines and Trim Wines, operated from 4500 Silverado Trail in Napa. The First-Day Declaration attributes the filing to a chain of events beginning with the 2017 Atlas Peak Fire, which destroyed the original winery, hospitality center, house, offices and laboratory. The rebuild took longer and cost more than budgeted, delayed further by a three-year permitting process, a drawn-out dispute with the debtors' insurer that ended in an unfavorable settlement, and a construction halt during the pandemic.

The new 20,000-square-foot winery — four times the footprint of the original structure — reopened in June 2024, built with concrete and steel, solar power, its own wastewater system and an additional well for firefighting water. Even after reopening, the debtors continued to carry the costs of the reconstruction debt into a market environment marked by COVID-era loss of restaurant business, 2020 smoke-taint impacts on inventory, weaker wine-market demand generally and reduced sales in Canada, where the Liquor Control Board of Ontario is listed among the debtors' major creditors. The declaration ties the chapter 11 filing to the combined weight of those carrying costs and softer demand rather than to any single event.

American AgCredit Debt and the Foreclosure Trigger

American AgCredit and affiliated lenders made six loans to fund the rebuild, with initial principal totaling $29.19 million, secured by guarantees from the debtor entities and blanket liens on substantially all of their assets. The debtors state the loans were in default and outstanding in an asserted amount of approximately $36.32 million as of the petition date. The declaration also identifies a Wells Fargo lien on Signorello Estate equipment and notes that a recorded lien held by an entity called Purple Wines has no underlying obligation attached to it.

Before the bankruptcy filing, BMO Capital Markets marketed the business to 119 potential buyers. No proposal exceeded $15 million, a level AgCredit found unacceptable relative to its claim. According to Matthew English, a principal of proposed financial advisor Arch + Beam Global, LLC, a foreclosure sale would likely have halted the wine operations and substantially diminished brand value; English's declaration estimates maximum net realizable value to AgCredit at $12 million in a foreclosure scenario, applying an expected 20% discount to the $15 million non-foreclosure benchmark.

DIP Financing and the Doman-Cooper Stalking Horse

The debtors are seeking authority for up to $3.5 million in secured, superpriority DIP financing from Ashley Cooper and Amar Doman, with an interim draw of up to $1 million. The proposed facility carries pricing of SOFR plus 8.5%, priming and superpriority-lien provisions, and a professional-fee carve-out. English reports that he contacted nine alternative DIP lenders, including AgCredit itself; eight passed and one, Legalist, did not respond, leaving the Cooper/Doman proposal as what English's declaration calls the best financing reasonably available.

The DIP term sheet requires a 13-week cash-flow budget refreshed on six-week cycles and proposes adequate-protection liens, a section 507(b) claim, contractual non-default interest and inventory-diminution payments running to AgCredit. On the sale side, Doman and Cooper offered $16 million on August 24, 2026, three days before the filing, then indicated a revised stalking-horse structure of up to $20 million — $16.5 million in cash plus a credit bid of the DIP obligations. The debtors intend to seek bid-procedures approval for a stalking-horse auction subject to higher and better offers. Proposed DIP milestones target a bid-procedures order by September 30, 2026, an auction by January 29, 2027 if one is needed, a sale hearing by February 5, 2027, and closing by February 28, 2027; none of these dates has been entered by the court, and the term sheet also preserves a plan-with-exit-financing path as an alternative to a sale.

Stretto Retention and Professional Team

The debtors have applied to appoint Stretto, Inc. as claims and noticing agent, covering creditor notice preparation, mailing-list maintenance, claims processing and registry functions under the Clerk's delegated authority; the application discloses a $5,000 advance the debtors provided to Stretto. Raymond Signorello's voluntary petition also disclosed that the debtor entities' partners authorized retention of Keller Benvenutti Kim LLP as general bankruptcy counsel, subject to a separate retention application. Matthew English of Arch + Beam Global, LLC is the debtors' proposed financial advisor on the DIP and sale process.