Anxieties about the liquidity crisis have driven Americans … to drink. Their beverage of choice? Wine.

The Wine Institute reports that sales of wine in America rose 4% last year, topping 14 consecutive years of growth that saw consumption increase 66% by volume between 1994 and 2007. Retail sales of wine in America amounted to $30 billion last year, making the country the biggest wine market in the world. Sales of wines from California accounted for 61% of the total, crowning it the fourth largest wine producer in the world behind France, Italy, and Spain.

This growth has attracted the attention of the Gordian Group, an advisory firm that for 20 years has specialized in solving complex financial issues (hence the name, taken from the fabled knot). The company, owned by co-founders Peter Kaufman and Henry Owsley, is well known for its efforts to guide companies through restructuring and back to health, including Spiegel, Smithfield Foods, and, more recently, Summit Global Logistics (presided over just prior to bankruptcy by a fan of Senator Clinton, General Wesley Clark).

Looking beyond economic triage, the Gordian folks have teamed up with Seagram heir Samuel Bronfman to establish Bacchus Capital Management, an investment firm focusing on the wine business that is based in San Francisco. One of their first ventures has been to launch a fund that will provide mezzanine capital and, to a lesser degree, private equity funding to wineries.

They consider this a fertile field for several reasons. First, most of the wineries in the country are family-owned, and the number is growing. Last year there were 2,687 wine producers in America, up from 807 in 1990. Like most family-owned enterprises, one of the biggest challenges facing these managers is how to pass the business onto the next generation without losing control, a process the Gordian folks can help facilitate.

According to a survey by the Silicon Valley Bank, some 51% of family-owned wineries are anticipating a change in ownership by 2017. Also, these businesses struggle with how to finance growth, enter new markets, and adjust to changing distribution trends.

Enter Bacchus’s secret weapon: expertise. Mr. Bronfman, formerly the president of Seagram Chateau and Estate Wines, and recently hired colleague Mike Jaegar have a proven track record of running wineries and promoting brands.

Indeed, according to Peter Kaufman, it was in searching for acquisitions for the Seagram heir that the Gordian team became enamored of the wine industry.

“We bid on some high-profile properties, but were drastically outbid by strategic buyers,” Mr. Kaufman says. That inspired the frustrated Gordian group to analyze the industry’s dynamics, and they liked what they saw.

“It’s back to biblical times,” Mr. Kaufman says. “Wine and water are the biggest growth areas in the U.S.”

Adding to their credentials is the engagement of Anheuser-Busch as a “significant” limited partner, contributing not only money but a full-time employee. “The company has a fabulous nationwide system for its own products,” Mr. Kaufman says. (He says he is not sure how Bacchus’s arrangement with Anheuser might be affected by an anticipated bid from InBev.)

“We arrogantly think we are the ‘smart money’ in the field,” Mr. Kaufman says. “The key to success is distribution. There are only about 10 national distributors that matter, and a lot of wineries can’t get distribution. Sam Bronfman is extremely conversant with these organizations and can be incredibly helpful. Worst case, some can game the system and make an end-run around the distributors, going through Anheuser.”

Almost all U.S. wineries (96%) are small outfits selling fewer than 100,000 cases a year. The growth in the industry is at the high end. Americans, and especially the 70 million younger millenials, have become more sophisticated; their tastes have improved and increasingly they seek out premium brands. Dollar sales of the highest-priced wines have expanded at better than 15% a year.

At the same time, there are only 600 wholesalers buying from these producers, down from 1,000 in 1980. As indicated, the bulk of the volume is funneled through even fewer outfits. Building awareness of brands has become crucial to success.

All of this sets the stage for the specialized financing that Bacchus intends to offer. The fund expects to provide mezzanine financing to wineries that are, according to Mr. Kaufman, “maxed out at their banks.” Bacchus is prepared to lend at four to eight times earnings before income taxes, depreciation, and amortization, compared to banks who typically will only lend up to three times EBITDA. Because acquisitions in the field typically fetch prices as high as 12 to 18 times EBITDA, Mr. Kaufman says investors are protected. In other words, if a loan goes bad and Bacchus has to take ownership of a property, it will be doing so at a significant discount to going purchase rates.

A buying spree over the past few years tends to confirm that prices are running high, as well as the general notion that many companies are up for sale. Private equity firm GI Partners bought a controlling interest in Duckhorn Wine Co. last summer for a reported $250 million (almost 19 times EBITDA according to Bacchus materials) and Jackson Wines purchased Legacy Estates in 2006 for $97 million, or 12 times EBITDA.

Gordian is not alone in being tempted by wine (heaven knows). The field is hot, but the Bacchus founders believe they will be in an excellent position to supply specialized financing to the sector. They are also optimistic about the returns available from investing in such a high-growth field. At the least, it is a liquid investment.

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