Kenwood Vineyards, located in the village of Kenwood in Sonoma Valley, has been a fixture of Sonoma County winemaking for over 50 years. The site has been home to winemaking for 120 years.
In the news
Kenwood Vineyards was recently sold back to a previous proprietor, Gary Heck, owner of Korbel Winery. This is a bit of a relief as the previous owners, the French company Pernod Ricard, didn't do the brand any favors.
Connection
I have been visiting Kenwood Vineyards since 1980, and even worked in the tasting room part-time weekends in the '90s to early '00s. The last time there I found out they had quit making the Artist Series Cabernet. What? It's not Kenwood without the Artist Series! I have the full vertical collection of the Artist Series Cabs and am still occasionally drinking a 30 or 40-year-old one.
Pagani to Kenwood
In 1970 brothers Mike and Marty Lee and brother-in-law John Sheela bought the old Pagani Winery, built in 1906. The Paganis were selling a white and a red wine, bring your own jug for filling. The buildings and wine making equipment were dilapidated. They also got a vineyard that needed replanting. The Lees and Sheelas knew nothing about the wine business, but were going to turn it into a premium winery. There were few high-end wineries in the county at the time. Mike became winemaker, Marty was the marketing guy, and John did finance. The '70s was a pivotal decade for Sonoma (and Napa) County wine and timing was everything for Kenwood.
Free publicity
For the 1975 vintage they decided to make a reserve Cabernet using artworks on the labels, getting the idea from Château Mouton Rothschild. A local artist did the first one, the naked lady on the hillside. The feds approve all labeling and when they saw this drawing somebody must have blushed, and they said no way. A few bottles had already been labeled, and they are worth a lot of money today. The artist was PO'ed and his next was a skeleton in place of the nude. The feds were pretty upset at the slap in the face. Eventually Kenwood went with a bare hillside. They received lots of publicity over the fracas.
Rapid growth
By the mid-1980s they were making over 100,000 cases a year and growing. These were the boom years for California wine and Kenwood cashed in. They made a lot of Sauvignon Blanc. They got the fruit from a couple dozen vineyards throughout the county. John Sheela, the finance guy, called it Château Cash Cow. They were also known for Cabernet and Zinfandel, especially those from the Jack London Ranch. There were at least 15 wines on their tasting board behind the bar in the old Pagani Winery building when I worked there. The tasting room had an uneven, pitted cement floor, the lighting was poor, and the dishwasher for the glasses was in another building.
Righting a wrong
For the 1994 Artist Series Cabernet they resubmitted the naked lady to the government controlling agency. I guess the feds had enough of Mike, Marty, and John and gave their approval.
Ownership changes
In 1996 Gary Heck of Sonoma County's Korbel Winery bought half interest in Kenwood Vineyards then bought the other half three years later. The Lees and Sheela retired in their 50s as millionaires. Heck quickly doubled production to 600,000 cases. When you do that it's difficult to maintain quality and overall it did suffer a bit under Heck.
In 2014 Pernod Ricard bought Kenwood from Heck for a reported $100 million. Heck recently bought it back for $4 million. Hopefully Heck will restore the style and quality that made Kenwood successful. Mostly I'm hoping for more Artist Series Cabernet. Perhaps some Jack London Ranch Zinfandel. Maybe Gary would like to discuss my vision. After all, we're buds from way back cuz I worked at another of his wineries in 2008 when he laid me off as the Great Depression hit. ☺
 |
| Kenwood Tasting Room in the old Pagani Winery |
No comments:
Post a Comment