Quick Answer
The California Court of Appeal reversed a lower court ruling, forcing Russian born billionaire Yuri Shefler back into Brad Pitt's lawsuit over the 2021 sale of Angelina Jolie's stake in Château Miraval.
The panel found that Shefler purposefully availed himself of California's business forum by buying a major asset from a California resident, defeating his bid to dodge personal jurisdiction.
The decision sets up a July 8 hearing on Pitt's deposition motion and a September 30 deadline for London depositions of Stoli Group executives.
What did the appellate court actually decide?
The Court of Appeal ruled that Shefler, the principal owner of the Stoli Group, cannot use his minimal physical presence in California to escape the lawsuit. His subsidiary Tenute del Mondo purchased Jolie's 50 percent stake in Château Miraval in 2021 for a reported figure near 40 million dollars. The appellate panel reasoned that an investor who spends that kind of capital acquiring an entity from a California resident, knowing the transaction will reshape the rights of a second California resident, has plainly reached into the state to do business.
That conclusion overturns an earlier trial court ruling that had quashed service on Shefler. By restoring him as a defendant, the appeals court keeps the most consequential potential witness on the hook for depositions and trial testimony.
Why does this matter for the Miraval case?
Pitt's central theory has always been that Jolie sold her share of the winery to a hostile third party without his consent, in violation of an alleged understanding between the former spouses. To prove that theory, Pitt's legal team needs Shefler under oath, because Shefler personally negotiated the acquisition and would know what disclosures and assurances were made on each side of the deal.
Jolie's representatives have publicly insisted that the jurisdictional ruling says nothing about the underlying merits, and they are technically correct. Procedural wins do not equal verdicts. But losing this motion strips the defense of a structural shortcut that would have removed a key witness from the case entirely.
What happens next in the litigation calendar?
Three dates now anchor the schedule. On July 8, the trial court is scheduled to hear Pitt's motion to compel depositions from senior Stoli Group executives, including Alexey Oliynik. By September 30, depositions for international corporate representatives from Tenute del Mondo B.V. and Nouvel LLC must be conducted in London under the applicable evidence treaties.
Both sides are now widely expected to push the matter to a jury trial sometime in 2027, unless settlement talks materialise. Given the personal stakes, the publicity, and the size of the underlying asset, a quiet resolution looks unlikely.
What is Château Miraval worth at the centre of this fight?
Château Miraval is a 1,000 acre estate in the Var department of Provence, France, best known for its rosé. The winery is widely valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars and produces one of the most commercially successful rosé labels in the world. For Pitt, the asset is both a personal project he helped build and a brand he wants to keep out of the hands of a foreign liquor conglomerate with a track record of contentious global litigation.
For Jolie, the 2021 sale provided liquidity and a clean break from a co owned business with a former spouse. For Shefler and the Stoli Group, the stake offered a luxury European footprint and a high margin lifestyle brand. The court fight is, in effect, a three way collision between those overlapping interests.
How did Pitt and Jolie end up in court over a winery?
Pitt and Jolie purchased Château Miraval together in 2008, and the property became the venue for their 2014 wedding. After their 2016 separation, the winery sat at the centre of a tangle of business and personal disputes, with Pitt continuing to invest in the winemaking side while Jolie wound down her active involvement. The 2021 sale of her 50 percent stake to Tenute del Mondo was, in Pitt's telling, a hostile transfer to a third party who had no business interest in respecting his contributions to the brand. In Jolie's telling, it was a legitimate exit from a co owned asset following years of unsuccessful internal negotiations.
That core factual dispute is what the eventual trial will resolve. The current appellate decision simply ensures that the people who actually structured the 2021 transaction will have to answer questions about it under oath, rather than treating the deal as a closed chapter beyond the reach of California courts.
The takeaway
The appellate ruling does not decide who owns Miraval, but it locks every major player into the same California courtroom for the foreseeable future. Pitt now has the procedural runway to depose the billionaire who acquired his ex wife's stake, and a 2027 trial is increasingly difficult to avoid.
