Kendall-Jackson Vineyard Estates

Y'all's mannerisms, and you look, and blah, blah, blah.

And my mom, on her third Kendall Jackson, says...

Well, she leaned

over and said, I knew your father.

Whereas later in my career, I did get excited about the subregions within Burgundy or Alsace or the Loire.

The first decade was really, I just wanted to know what every consumer wanted, whether it was as silly as Yellow Tail or Kendall Jackson from a supermarket standpoint, all the way to single vineyard Guigal Côte-Rôtie or first growth Bordeaise or Penfolds Grange or, you know, Napa Valley cult wines.

And then at 34 years old, 16 years ago, I started another business with my brother.

I kind of left the day-to-day running of the wine business.

He actually was locked up after he killed a federal judge.

Yeah, she told me after her fourth toke and her fifth Kendall Jackson that she knew my-

[laughs]

No, she said she knew-

My kids call him Uncle Woody, and they're always, "I mean, you're just like our brothers, like our brothers." For decades that's been going on.

And one night, we're on a family vacation, or, um, and it's about 1:00 AM, and my mom is now into her, like, third Kendall Jackson.

[laughs]

[laughs]

The liquor Kendall Jackson.

And this talk is going on.

Yes.

But yeah, we did that successfully.

And then we exited that winery to Kendall Jackson about 27 or 28 months after purchase.

So at that point I was like, I'm hooked on wine and I love the sales and I love the hospitality and I'm super competitive, especially in endurance sports where you have to just put in the work.

There's no shortcuts.

And she was a little tight.

She'd had her Kendall Jackson.

She was feeling good that she tells me.

And I'm thinking, well, what's behind this story, you know? And then I find out they weren't just, you know, friends.

Here's something else I was thinking about last night.

So we know brands like Kendall Jackson and whatnot, Chateau Saint-Michel, and what have you.

They're in every single grocery store in America.

Every single one.

They completely... how many grocery stores.

Think about how many wine stores.

How is it possible that this one vineyard, Kendall Jackson, puts that much juice in that many bottles and it all tastes the same, like their Kendall Jackson, whatever year Chardonnay, all tastes the same? It's not possible because what you don't know is behind the scenes, Kendall Jackson owns like 10 other vineyards and they're blending juice together.

and, you know, you get one bottle here, and then you go to Kansas, you get the same bottle, it's going to be different.