Edward Humes
The story of self-made billionaire Jess Jackson, who put Chardonnay on Americaâ€™s tables as he built the Kendallâ€“Jackson wine empire from a few mountainous acres of grapes, and raced the Horse of the Year three years in a row, is a remarkable tale of romance, risk, and reinventionâ€”perhaps the greatest second act in the history of American business.,Jess Stonestreet Jackson was one of a small band of pioneering entrepreneurs who put Californiaâ€™s Wine Country on the map. His life story is a compelling slice of history, daring, innovation, feuds, intrigue, talent, mystique, and luck. Admirers and detractors alike have called him the Steve Jobs of wineâ€”a brilliant, infuriating, contrarian gambler who seemed to win more than his share by anticipating consumersâ€™ desires with uncanny skill. Time after time his decisions would be ignored and derided, then envied and imitated as competitors struggled to catch up.,He founded Kendallâ€“Jackson with a single, tiny vineyard and a belief that there could be more to California Wine Country than jugs of bottom-shelf screw-top. Today, Kendallâ€“Jackson and its 14,000 acres of coastal and mountain vineyards produce a host of award-winning wines, including the most popular Chardonnay in the world, which was born out of a catastrophe that nearly broke Jackson. The empire Jackson built endures and thrives as a family-run leader of the American wine industry.,Jess Jackson entered the horseracing game just as dramatically. He brought con men to justice, exposed industry-wide corruption in court and Congress, then exacted the best revenge of all: race after race, he defied conventional wisdom with one high-stakes winner after another, capped by the epic season of Rachel Alexandra, the first filly to win the Preakness in nearly a century, cementing Jacksonâ€™s reputation as Americaâ€™s king of wine and horses.
Biography,Nonfiction,Alcohol,Wine,Business
A Man and His Mountain: The Everyman Who Created Kendall-Jackson and Became America's Greatest Wine Entrepreneur