It's amazing that in one fell swoop, Jackson Family Wines has become, almost overnight, Napa's third largest organic vineyard owner with 480 planted acres certified organic in 2022-23. (Note: these figures were updated Oct. 31. 2023).
Where are its newly certified organic vines located?
The organic certifier CCOF has now shared this information. which is part of winery's public client profile. Though the total is 663, the winery in its press release said 480 acres were planted.
AnalysisThe data shows that the largest certified organic Jackson owned parcels are clustered in various AVAs and specific types of terrain, with mountain vineyards predominating. No surprise as it's well known that these were Jess Jackson's favorites.
Largest Organic Vineyard Holdings - 50-200 acres
Four sites are responsible for 452 acres. All except the Oakville site are on mountain areas.
1. Potelle, Mount Veeder AVA | 202 acres
2. Keyes, Howell Mountain AVA | 109 acres
3. Cardinale, Oakville AVA | 80 acres
4. Veeder, Mount Veeder AVA | 61 acres
------
Vineyards - 10-50 Acres
5. La Jota, Howell Mountain AVA | 41 Acres
6. Rhyolite Ride, Diamond Mountain District AVA (?) | 39
7. Atalon, Calistoga AVA | 30 acres
8. Wurtele, Spring Mountain AVA | 27 acres
9. Lokoya, Spring Mountain AVA | 24 acres
10. Wilson, St. Helena AVA | 14 acres
11. Ho, Mount Veeder AVA | 11 acres
12. Wallis, Diamond Mountain District AVA | 10 acres
Historic Sites - Fewer Than 10 Acres
This group is tiny but prominent, as it's historic sites surrounding Freemark Abbey.
13. VanZ, St. Helena AVA | 5 acres
14. Ahern in St. Helena AVA | 4 acres (at Freemark Abbey)
15. Freemark Abbey, St. Helena AVA | 2 acres
------
Here's another slice of the data:
---------------------------------------------ACREAGE BY AVA
GROUP 1 - MOUNTAIN AVAS
---Mount Veeder AVA - 274 Acres
Potelle, Mount Veeder AVA | 202 acres
Veeder, Mount Veeder AVA | 61 acres
Ho, Mount Veeder AVA | 11 acres
---Howell Mountain AVA - 150 Acres
Keyes, Howell Mountain AVA | 109 acres
GROUP 2 - VALLEY PROPERTIES
Cardinale, Oakville AVA | 80 acres
---St. Helena AVA - 25 Acres
Wilson, St. Helena AVA | 14 acres
VanZ, St. Helena AVA | 5 acres
Ahern in St. Helena AVA | 4 acres (at Freemark Abbey)
Freemark Abbey, St. Helena AVA | 2 acres
---Calistoga AVA - 30 Acres (Valley)
Atalon, Calistoga AVA | 30 acres
The Bigger Picture
Jackson also owns or controls as much as 50,000 acres, if Wikipedia is to be believed. Older stats said it owned 15,000 acres including 13,000 in California. (It has recently purchased vineyards in Oregon and Washington.)
So 663 acres is a good start.
Lower Price Tiers: New Producers with Organic Paths
It's often hard for people to get their head around the fact that a company and its various brands are often not consistent in their certifications. Indeed, even within one brand, some wines may be organically grown while others are not.
Jackson's coastal vineyards are not farmed organically–farm from it–and its Napa wines are costly. But its decision to go organic on its high end Napa vines is a notable shift and a major commitment.
On the other hand, brands with wines in the same price range of some of KJ's coastal vineyard wines, which are often farmed with dangerous chemicals, are on an organic path.
Scheid has announced its plans to certify 3,000 acres and has already completed certification on 667 acres (in Monterey County). In Paso Robles, Castoro Cellars already has 1,400 acres of organic vines with another 200 in the pipeline.
A Canadian pension fund backed grower, Kylix Vineyards (affiliated with Grapevine Capital Partners, which has previously represented Harvard's endowment investments) has recently certified 485 acres of vineyards organic in Paso's San Juan Creek AVA. And the Riboli Family (Stella Rosa is one of their brands) is making headway with 60 acres newly certified organic and another 100 acres in the pipeline in Paso westside holdings.
Giant Trinchero, a CCOF designated "new applicant," has 183 acres in Yolo County in the organic certification pipeline, according to the CCOF website.
Wine Business ranks Jackson Family Wines as the ninth largest winery in the U.S. with production of 6 million cases. Now it's taking its first giant step into the organic sector.
No comments:
Post a Comment