Kendall Jackson
From LoveToKnow Wine
Jess Jackson
Kendall-Jackson. The words now inspire thoughts of a vast wine-making and marketing empire whose owner clocks in as the 140th richest person in the world. But it wasn’t always so. If in the early 1980s you asked about this place, you would have heard about a small winery in Lake County, California, that was a part-time project for Jess Stonestreet Jackson, a Bay Area attorney.
The Early Years
The story goes something like this: In the early 1970s Jess Jackson buys an 80-acre pear orchard in Lakeport, California, and builds a small winery. In 1982 Jess creates his first bottle of wine made under the label of Kendall-Jackson (the name Kendall refers to his ex-wife’s maiden name). The first wine he produced—a chardonnay—was received quite well, and the website at Kendall-Jackson says it received a “platinum award”…it does not mention in what competition. So, this small little winery is producing wine and a few visitors are trickling in on the weekends—a normal startup winery story, right? Well, not quite.
White House Connections and Media Reports
It seems that a wine buyer in Sacramento who had close connections with the Reagan White House sent a couple bottles of this Chardonnay to Nancy Reagan for her to try out. She tried it, and liked it…a lot. Soon, K-J Chardonnay became one of the mainstay white wines served at the White House, and it didn’t go unnoticed. Herb Caen, prominent San Francisco Chronicle columnist, took notice of Nancy Reagan's fondness for the wine and wrote an article about it—nicknaming it “Nancy’s Wine.” That was the spark that set off the fire.
The Boom
All of a sudden hordes of people were driving up to Lakeport to get a taste of “Nancy’s Wine”. They sold out, they had to make more, and growth boomed into what it is today—one of the largest wine empires in the United States. Today Kendall-Jackson makes America’s most popular and best-selling white wine: Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay. On top of having their own label, Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates owns La Crema, Hartford Family Wines, Stonestreet, Cardinale, Verité, Freemark Abbey, Arrowood, Byron, and others. Pretty big.
Wine Labels
One of the more interesting facts about Jess Jackson is that he fought and rejected the California wine industry's trend toward vineyard-specific wine labeling in the early days. He ignored the concept of terroir in specific vineyards sites in favor of blending wines from different regions to achieve desired wine characteristics. Most of the wines (including the entry-level ones) carry the “Reserve” title on their label. For example, the entry level wine is labeled “Vintner’s Reserve,” which in all actuality is a brilliant marketing plan: the term reserve is not governed by the state or federal laws, so anyone can use the term without having to really define it.
Big Player in Big Market
Currently Kendall-Jackson is a huge player in the wine market—and is still privately held as a family business. They have acquired many new properties/wineries in this last year alone, and have invested a fair amount of time and money into their wineries and winemaking facilities. Just recently I attended an event in which the Kendall-Jackson culinary team won a prestigious award for their food and presentation. Even at their wine center in Santa Rosa, California, they have introduced a reserve food and wine pairing—hopping onto this very popular trend here in California wine country.
More to Come
KJ (as the locals like to call it) has definitely made its mark on the wine world. With the solid financial backing from its owner we will continue to see advancements and innovations coming from this wine powerhouse.
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