Kendall-Jackson

Being a family-owned winery absolutely affects our winemaking. It affords us the luxury to take the long view. We can take risks and grow our grapes in mountain and hillside vineyards- even though it is more difficult for both the farmer and the vine. But grapes grown on mountains have more character and more flavor—and that’s why we grow them there.

As a family-run business, we can put the long-term interests of future generations above short-term financial gains. Our success will be measured by generations of family, rather than by numbers on quarterly reports. We can't just be thinking about today, or tomorrow, or this quarter, or this year. We have to take the long view—100, 200 years—and think of future generations and the environment in which they'll live.

There are some special places where you just want to be, to live. And among those places are the coastal maritime, cool hills and mountains of the California coast. I’m at peace and spiritually satisfied when I'm in the mountains and hills and benches of California—the very places where the best grapes thrive. The land gives us what we need. It gives us our shelter, our food, our clean air—all of the things we need, except for one: family.