Jackson Family Wines

The company's own history page traces its story to a Lake County orchard. Jess Stonestreet Jackson Jr. and his family bought an aging orchard and planted chardonnay grapes there in 1974, farming grapes before they ever made wine. In 1982, Kendall-Jackson debuted with the release of the 1982 Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay, and Jackson and his two daughters, Jenny and Laura, began hand-selling the wine across the country. Inspired by French winemaking traditions, Jackson established a 'Flavor Domaine' philosophy, planting individual grape varieties suited to their specific terroir. By 1992, Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve had become the top-selling Chardonnay in America, a title the company's own site says it has held for more than 25 years; the wine is described as 95 percent barrel fermented, with each barrel sur lie aged and hand stirred monthly.

• Jess Jackson and his family bought an aging Lake County orchard and planted chardonnay grapes there in 1974, per the company's own history page
• Kendall-Jackson debuted with the 1982 Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay; Jackson and daughters Jenny and Laura hand-sold the wine across the country
• A 'Flavor Domaine' philosophy, inspired by French winemaking traditions, guided the planting of individual grape varieties suited to their terroir
• By 1992, Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay was America's top-selling Chardonnay, a title the company's own site says it has held for 25-plus years

Jess Jackson used Kendall-Jackson's early success to build a wider portfolio of estates. In 1986, the family purchased part of the historic Tepusquet Vineyard on the Santa Maria Bench and established Cambria Estate Winery, a name that the company's own history page says pays homage to Barbara Banke's Welsh heritage. Stonestreet Winery followed in Sonoma County's Alexander Valley in 1989. The company's own history page dates the start of winemaking in Chile to 1993 and in Italy to 1994, the same year Jenny Jackson Hartford and her husband, Don Hartford, established Hartford Family Winery in the Russian River Valley. The family's commitment to mountain fruit deepened with the purchase of the Stonestreet Mountain Estate (formerly the Gauer Estate) in Alexander Valley in 1995 and the W.S. Keyes vineyard on Napa's Howell Mountain in 1996, followed by Monterey County vineyard plantings in 1997. International expansion continued with winemaking beginning in McLaren Vale, South Australia in 2000 (the company's own Yangarra Estate Vineyard winery page separately lists a 2001 founding date for that specific winery, an internal inconsistency between the two pages) and in Saint-Emilion, Bordeaux, France in 2003, home to Château Lassègue. Jess Jackson purchased La Jota Vineyard Co. on Howell Mountain in 2005, according to a November 3, 2005 Press Democrat report; the report states the historic stone winery, built in 1898, had been purchased by Markham Vineyards in 2001 before Markham sold the 42-acre property to Jackson's Artisans and Estates line. The Jackson family purchased Freemark Abbey, a Napa Valley winery dating to 1886, in 2006, according to Freemark Abbey's own history page, which describes the purchase as bringing the winery 'back under single-family ownership.' The company's own history page dates its first acquisitions in Oregon's Willamette Valley to 2013 and its entry into South Africa to 2014.

• Cambria (1986, Santa Maria Bench, named for Barbara Banke's Welsh heritage) and Stonestreet (1989, Alexander Valley) were early California expansions, per the company's own history page
• International expansion, per the company's own history page: winemaking in Chile (1993) and Italy (1994); McLaren Vale, South Australia (2000); Saint-Emilion, France (2003)
• La Jota Vineyard Co. on Howell Mountain was purchased in 2005 (Press Democrat, November 3, 2005); Freemark Abbey was purchased in 2006 (Freemark Abbey's own history page)
• First Oregon acquisitions in the Willamette Valley (2013) and entry into South Africa (2014), per the company's own history page

Jackson Family Wines operates a tiered portfolio of 40 wineries, per the company's own current wineries page. Kendall-Jackson, founded in 1982 in Sonoma County under winemaker Kris Kato, remains the company's flagship, its Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay described on the company's own brand page as 'America's Favorite' and the top-selling Chardonnay in the country since 1992. La Crema, founded in 1979 as La Crema Viñera in Sonoma County's Russian River Valley, specializes in cool-climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir under winemaker Craig McAllister. At the luxury end, Cardinale, founded in 1982 in Napa Valley under winemaker Christopher Carpenter, produces a Cabernet Sauvignon sourced primarily from Napa's mountain vineyards, while Lokoya, founded in 1995 and also under Carpenter, bottles four single-appellation, 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon wines from Mount Veeder, Howell Mountain, Spring Mountain, and Diamond Mountain, fermented with native yeast and bottled unfined and unfiltered. The crown jewel is Vérité, founded in Sonoma County in 1998, where vigneron Pierre Seillan crafts three wines, La Muse, La Joie, and Le Désir, from more than 50 micro-crus, according to the company's own Vérité brand page. The company's own history page states that Vérité's 2001 La Muse earned the winery's first 100-point score from Robert Parker, Jr. in what it calls 'the first of 15 perfect scores to date,' and that the entire 2007 vintage of all three wines received 100-point scores; a January 2016 profile in The Buyer put the total at seven perfect 100-point scores from Parker at that time; an August 2017 Robb Report profile put the total at 13 as of that later date; and an April 2021 Vinography retrospective, without giving an exact count, described Vérité as having been 'racking up impressive 100-point scores from critics for two decades.'

• Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay (founded 1982) has been America's top-selling Chardonnay since 1992, per the company's own site
• La Crema (founded 1979 as La Crema Viñera) is the portfolio's Russian River Valley cool-climate Chardonnay and Pinot Noir specialist
• Cardinale (1982) and Lokoya (1995), both under winemaker Christopher Carpenter, are the Napa mountain-fruit luxury Cabernets; Lokoya bottles four single-appellation wines
• Vérité (founded 1998, Sonoma County): three Bordeaux-inspired wines (La Muse, La Joie, Le Désir) by vigneron Pierre Seillan; 100-point Wine Advocate scores reported at seven (Jan. 2016), 13 (Aug. 2017), and 15 'to date' per the company's own undated history-page count

Environmental stewardship has been part of Jackson Family Wines' public identity for years. All estate vineyards earned certification under California's Certified California Sustainable Winegrowing (CCSW) program by 2010, per the company's own history page. The company installed its first solar panels in 2012 and has since built what its own site calls the U.S. wine industry's largest on-site solar array, comprising more than 23,000 solar panels and powering more than 30 percent of its winemaking operations, with a stated goal of expanding that to more than 50 percent by 2025. The company also collaborated on a pilot project with Tesla Energy in 2015 and was named The Drinks Business's Green Company of the Year in 2013, winning EPA Green Power Leadership Awards in 2013, 2016, and 2018. In August 2021, the company unveiled Rooted for Good: Roadmap to 2030, a 10-year sustainability and climate action plan committing to cut its carbon footprint in half by 2030 and become climate positive by 2050 without purchasing carbon offsets; the company's own site states it had already reduced its total greenhouse gas emissions by 17.5 percent since 2015. On February 28, 2019, in Barcelona, Spain, Katie Jackson and Miguel Torres of Spain's Familia Torres signed the founding commitment of International Wineries for Climate Action (IWCA), which the company later folded into a broader commitment to the United Nations' Race to Zero campaign. The company's own site also states that more than 60 percent of the land under its care in its estate vineyard properties has been left unplanted and kept in its natural state, with a goal of transitioning 100 percent of estate vineyards to regenerative farming practices by 2030, and that 98 percent of its waste, including 1,353 tons of recyclables and 13,328 tons of organics, is diverted from landfills.

• All estate vineyards CCSW-certified by 2010; first solar panels installed 2012; Tesla Energy pilot project in 2015, per the company's own history page
• Built what the company's own site calls the U.S. wine industry's largest on-site solar array (23,000-plus panels), powering more than 30 percent of winemaking operations, with a goal of more than 50 percent by 2025
• Co-founded IWCA with Familia Torres; Katie Jackson and Miguel Torres signed the founding commitment in Barcelona on February 28, 2019, per the company's own site
• Rooted for Good: Roadmap to 2030 (unveiled August 2021): cut carbon footprint in half by 2030, climate positive by 2050 without offsets; company states a 17.5 percent GHG reduction already achieved since 2015

Jackson Family Wines has remained privately held and family-run throughout its history. Jess Stonestreet Jackson Jr. (1930-2011) founded the company; he died on April 21, 2011, and the company's own history page states that Barbara Banke was named Chairman, with Don Hartford named Vice Chairman; Banke's own company bio describes Jess Jackson as 'her late husband.' Banke's own company bio describes her as a former land-use and constitutional-law attorney with degrees from UCLA and Hastings Law School who argued cases before the United States Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal, and credits her and Jackson with shaping 'nearly two dozen premium wineries' across Sonoma, Napa, Monterey, Santa Barbara, and Mendocino counties in addition to the company's international properties; she was named Wine Enthusiast's first female Wine Personality of the Year in 2012 and received Wine Spectator's Distinguished Service Award in 2017, per the company's own history page. Jess Jackson's daughters Jenny Jackson Hartford and Laura Jackson Giron, together with three more children he had with Barbara Banke, Katherine 'Katie' Jackson, Julia Jackson, and Christopher Jackson, are each involved in the company, per Banke's own company bio. Katie Jackson, the oldest of Barbara and Jess's children, made her first harvest in the cellar at Stonestreet Winery and today focuses on sustainability and government relations for the company, per her own company bio; she was named to Wine Enthusiast's '40 under 40' in 2018, per the company's own history page. Julia Jackson, a second-generation vintner, founded the environmental summit and foundation Grounded and has built company partnerships including with the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, per her own company bio. Christopher Jackson focuses on Stonestreet Estate Winery, per his own company bio. In 2013, the family-funded, $4 million Jess S. Jackson Sustainable Winery Building opened at UC Davis as part of the university's LEED Platinum-Certified teaching and research facility, per the company's own history page.

• Jess Stonestreet Jackson Jr. (1930-2011) founded the company; after his death, Barbara Banke was named Chairman and Don Hartford was named Vice Chairman, per the company's own history page
• Barbara Banke: former land-use and constitutional-law attorney (UCLA, Hastings Law School); Wine Enthusiast's first female Wine Personality of the Year (2012); Wine Spectator Distinguished Service Award (2017)
• Jess Jackson's daughters Jenny Jackson Hartford and Laura Jackson Giron, and, with Barbara Banke, children Katie, Julia, and Christopher Jackson, are each involved in the company, per Banke's own company bio
• The $4 million, family-funded Jess S. Jackson Sustainable Winery Building opened at UC Davis in 2013 as part of its LEED Platinum-Certified teaching and research facility

Primary sources (the company's own site, jacksonfamilywines.com): home, history, family, wineries, Barbara Banke's bio, Katie Jackson's bio, Julia Jackson's bio, Christopher Jackson's bio, Rooted for Good overview and roadmap, Our Race to Zero, Land Conservation and Farming, and the individual winery pages for Kendall-Jackson, Vérité, Lokoya, Cardinale, La Crema, Cambria, Stonestreet, Tenuta di Arceno, Château Lassègue, Yangarra Estate Vineyard, La Jota, and Freemark Abbey. A related primary-brand source, freemarkabbey.com's own history page, was also used. Secondary sources: Vinography (April 2021), Robb Report (August 2017), The Buyer (January 2016), all on Vérité's 100-point scores from critic Robert Parker; and the Press Democrat (November 3, 2005) on the La Jota Vineyard Co. purchase. Last verified 2026-09-14. Where the company's own site and a secondary source disagree, or where the site's own pages disagree with each other, both accounts are stated with their sources named.