Jess Jackson was a man of many talents.
A California native and a product of the Great Depression, from an early age he worked to support his family, and then worked his way through law school (finishing when he was just 21) with jobs as widely varied as police officer and dock worker. He became a very successful real estate attorney and was a founding member of Decimus, a company that leased IBM mainframe computers to California corporations. In 1974, with then wife Jane Kendall Jackson, he purchased a pear and walnut orchard in Lakeport, California.
Lakeport, located in Lake County, is approximately 75 miles north of Napa, and 120 miles north of Jackson’s San Francisco home. The California wine industry had just begun to recovery from more than three decades of stagnation following the repeal of Prohibition, and in the early 1970s Lake County supported only 100 acres of wine grapes. However, Jackson was convinced that there was a likely market for higher quality grapes, and in response he ripped out the orchard and added to county’s hundred acres ‘premium’ Chardonnay (and a few other varieties).
Originally, Jackson intended to sell his grapes to wineries. However, by the early 1980s there was a glut of grapes available to winemakers, and rather than sell his ‘premium’ juice for less than production cost, Jackson decided to vinify his own wine. Although Jackson and Jane Kendall Jackson divorced in the early 1980s, the winery formed by that decision was and remains jointly named.
Jackson determined that he was best representative of his wine. He talked his way into the iconic Oyster Bar in New York’s Grand Central Station, and by the late 1980s Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay was a staple of virtually every wine shop and on virtually every restaurant list. It certainly helped that Nancy Reagan liked the Vintner’s Reserve and served it at the White House.
Jackson married fellow attorney Barbara Banke in 1984, and together they acquired an additional 25,000 California acres and planted 14,000 acres of grapes. They developed or purchased nearly two dozen wineries. All Jackson Family wines state the goal of sustainability. They rotate crop covers, compost, have developed programs of both water conservation and integrated pest management, and have maintained animal habitat corridors.
Jess Jackson died in 2011. However, his wine empire, now managed by his late wife and some of his five children, has now expanded to more than 50,000 acres in the U.S. alone, forty wineries, and sells six million cases each year. They have interests in wineries and vineyards in Bordeaux, Tuscany, South Africa, Australia, and Chile.
One of those forty U.S. wineries is Cambria, located in the Santa Barbara wine country, and managed by Jackson and Banke’s daughters, Julia and Kate. Specifically, we are focus on the 2018 Katherine’s Vineyard Santa Maria Valley Chardonnay.
The Santa Maria Valley is an AVA of Santa Barbara. The region is noted for an ‘ever present fog’ and diverse soils that are ideal for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. They also grow Viognier and Syrah in the region.
We really like this wine. Joy and I especially like it when it is available for less than $15 at Costco.
Consistently good, the 2018 Katherine’s Vineyard was rated 92 points by the Wine Spectator, who referred to it as “Lithe and powerful, featuring a vibrant core of apple and peach pastry flavors, with dried tropical fruit accents”. If you appreciate the buttery characteristics of California chards, then you will enjoy this wine.
Drink it young.
Available nationally.