Working World

Jess Jackson, owner of Kendall-Jackson Estate Vineyards, has 14,000 acres of cultivated grapes, with a total ownership of 36,000 acres in the prime wine counties of Northern and Central California. His mid-priced Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay is the best-selling wine in U.S. food stores (based on dollar volume) and is a ubiquitous and popular choice in restaurants as well.

Now 79 years old, Mr. Jackson is a self-made billionaire with a net worth of $2.2 billion. In 2008, Forbes listed him as the 553rd richest person in the world.

It all started with an 80-acre pear and walnut orchard he purchased in 1975 in Lakeport, Calif., 90 miles north of San Francisco. At the time, he was a UC Berkeley-educated property rights attorney tired of the corporate life; he wanted to be a farmer instead. So he converted the orchards to vineyards in 1975 and pressed the grapes for his first casks of wine in 1980. Kendall-Jackson was founded in 1982 with his first wife, Jane Kendall, and now makes nearly four million cases of wine each year, plus another one and a half million cases from his company Jackson Family Wines.

The strategy that propelled Kendall-Jackson Chardonnay into its position as one of the best-selling wines in the country is the company’s focus on consistency, always producing the same quality product, regardless of the cost, and keeping the brand flavorful and affordable.   

In the 1990s, Mr. Jackson sought to control as many aspects of the winemaking as possible in order to ensure quality and efficiency. Part of that included buying partial stake in a stave mill in France to make sure the barrels that 80 percent of their wine was fermented and aged in would meet their standards and still remain cost-effective.

Mr. Jackson insists his privately owned, family-run company is “not looking for quarterly profits,” and that they “put the interests of future generations above short-term financial gain.” Although he does admit that he is a competitive sort. Another of his interests is horseracing, and he has had some success there, too.

In 2007, he acquired a majority stake in Curlin, a thoroughbred that won both the Preakness Stakes and the Breeders’ Cup Classic that year. In March 2008 the four-year-old went on to win the $6 million Dubai World Cup, the richest horserace in the world (Curlin’s share was $3.5 million). Mr. Jackson and his current wife, Barbara Banke, own three horse farms in Kentucky and support anti-slaughter legislation such as the Prevention of Equine Cruelty Act of 2008, which will increase protection for horses if passed.

Mr. Jackson has managed the family’s business with Ms. Banke, who is also a former attorney. They live in Healdsville, Calif., and devote part of their time and money to philanthropic causes, especially those devoted to children and education. They helped to found two Sonoma County schools and Sonoma Paradiso, an organization that raises money for children’s charities through wine auctions.   

Suzanne Ridgway is a freelance writer and regular columnist for Working World and Working Nurse magazines. She also writes grant proposals for nonprofit organizations.