(PD) - Deerfield Ranch Winery in Kenwood filed for bankruptcy protection last week in an effort to prevent the award-winning winery from being auctioned off to pay its primary lender.

The winery founded by Robert and PJ Rex in 1982 filed Chapter 11 papers Friday in the hopes of staving off a fire sale of its half-finished winery to satisfy an $11 million debt to Rabobank.

The goal of the move is to reorganize the winery so all debtors and investors can be paid, not just one bank that loaned the winery money just as the Great Recession hit, said Addison Rex, operations manager of the 30,000-case operation.

“We’re trying to resolve a bad loan with our lender that was written in 2008,” said Rex, who is founder Robert Rex’s nephew.

The owners of the winery were not fully aware of the terms of the Rabobank loan, which required hefty annual balloon payments, Addison Rex said.

The bankruptcy is something of an anomaly for an industry whose fortunes have been on the rise for several years as high-end wine sales have surged and wine industry real estate has enjoyed healthy valuations given the shortage of prime vineyard land.

There have been exceptions, such as the Hill Wine Co. in Napa, which filed for Chapter 11 in April. But that case is highly unusual, involving criminal charges against Jeffrey Hill claiming he stole $65,000 worth of grapes during the 2013 harvest.

The majority of high-end wineries are experiencing solid growth. Wines in the over-$20-a-bottle category are expected to see sales growth of 14 to 18 percent this year as the economy improves, gas prices drop and demand for fine wines grows, according to Rob McMillan, founder of the Silicon Valley Bank Wine Division.

Deerfield Ranch produces 15,000 cases of wine priced from $24 to $85 per bottle. Its custom-crush operation produces another 15,000 cases of wine for other labels.

Two major issues that pushed the winery into bankruptcy involve cost overruns and delays on a Highway 12 widening project required as part of its use permit, and the loan from Rabobank, which required balloon payments winery owners neither understood nor could afford to make, Addison Rex said.