In vino, Vérité

Jess Jackson dreamed of making a world-class California Merlot. His French partner, Pierre Seillan, had his sights set even higher. Together, Roger Morris writes, they surpassed expectations.

Vérité, California
Vérité, California

The story has the makings of a heart-warming buddy movie – a well-known veteran California wine entrepreneur joins forces with a stubborn French winemaker to produce an iconic, world-class Merlot in California, achieving their goal with Vérité.

But the thing is, the tale is actually as much about girl power. 

Astonishing success

No matter how you feel about wine ratings, Sonoma County’s Vérité winery, co-founded by the late Jess Jackson, has achieved an unparalleled track record in the 19 vintages released of its three wines, each using a different Bordeaux varietal grape. Its Merlot blend (La Muse) has garnered six 100-point ratings from Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, its Cabernet Sauvignon (La Joie) has achieved four perfect scores, and its Cabernet Franc (Le Désir) has collected another five aces for a total of 15 perfect scores. No one else in either the New World or Bordeaux has even attempted such a broad-ranging achievement, let alone garnered that many perfect scores in such a short period.  

For Jackson, Vérité was not just a trophy project. Having succeeded in the mass market with Kendall-Jackson, he gradually added other brands to his portfolio and intended Vérité to join his iconic, small-production Napa Valley reds such as Cardinale and Lokoya as high-end wines. Points would gain attention, but a fully developed marketing plan and marketing system would be necessary to make the brand profitable.

“We only produce a few thousand cases each of La Muse and La Joie, a little less of Le Désir, but we will have some new Cabernet Franc plantings ready soon,” says Barbara Banke, widow and former business partner of the late Jess Jackson, who now heads the international, multi-brand Jackson Family Wines (JFW). The three varietals sell for about $400 a bottle, with much of the volume being high-margin direct sales. Its wines are listed on London’s Liv-ex fine wine exchange, are distributed alongside its claret cousins via La Place de Bordeaux, and already appear in Sotheby’s and Christie’s collectors’ auctions.

“The US secondary market trade is dominated by the larger production estates like Opus and Dominus,” says Justin Gibbs, Liv-ex’s co-founder and director. “The smaller production estates like Vérité, Screaming [Eagle] and Harlan tend to be tightly held by loyal followers. In terms of price performance, Vérité wines are pretty consistent – the 100-pointers from 2007 and 2008 trade at the £280-300 level.” He adds, “It’s one to watch.”

“Vérité is highly regarded – it’s one of the exceptional Californian wines which is available in the UK,” says Martyn Rolph, fine wine sales manager at Britain’s Berry Bros & Rudd, noting the retailer sent five salespeople to visit the estate earlier in the year. “In the past, the three wines from Vérité have been offered separately,” he adds. “However, from last year we started offering the wines as a three-bottle selection case, with one of each of the three wines. This enables [us] to better promote the full story of the estate. We sold through our allocation last year.”

The beginnings

The story began with a serendipitous meeting between Banke and Monique Seillan in 1995 at Vinexpo in Bordeaux, where Seillan was working in a marketing job. That meeting set the spark for what became a multi-winery, two-family venture now in its second generation. “Barbara wanted to see some vineyards in St-Émilion,” Seillan remembers, “so I drove her there.”  

Jackson, a lawyer who became a winegrower in 1974, had hit the jackpot in 1982 when he introduced Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay (first lady Nancy Reagan’s favourite), which practically grew wings from flying off the shelf. He and Banke married in 1988 and she immediately became an equal partner in business decisions.

Monique’s husband, Pierre Seillan, had been a winemaker all his adult life, first in his native Gascony and then in the Loire Valley before settling in Bordeaux, where he developed a reputation for having a way with Merlot. The two women agreed that their families should get together, which they did the following year in Bordeaux, quickly becoming best friends, as did their teenage children.

“At the time, Merlot was not considered to be a premium wine in Napa and Sonoma,” Pierre Seillan says. “Jess wanted to change that.” Like a whirlwind romance, Jackson convinced the Seillans to join him and Banke in California to make The Great American Merlot. In 1997, the Seillans moved to California. “Jess and I travelled across the state,” Seillan says, “but most places were too hot for Merlot.” Instead, he decided to use his négociant training to make Merlot sourced from several mountainside vineyards Jackson owned or controlled in Sonoma County. “I decided that the key was to make micro-crus in a macro-cru winery.” 

Vérité was launched with the 1998 vintage, although Seillan says it was a challenging year. “We had El Niño and lots of rain which resulted in poor fruit set.” Yet in the same vintage, he says, “I convinced Jess that we should make a little Cabernet Sauvignon as well.” The 1998 La Muse received 95 Parker points, while the Cabernet, La Joie, was awarded 94 – not bad for bad-vintage first wines. Yet Seillan wasn’t satisfied. “In my dreams, I really wanted to make a Cabernet Franc – but I didn’t want to tell Jess at first,” he says. But he eventually found some Cab Franc, not very widely grown in California at the time, and added Le Désir with the 2000 vintage. The three have been produced annually since.

Those were heady times for the Jacksons and the Seillans. Jackson arranged a blind tasting for about 50 writers, sommeliers and others in the trade, comparing the 1998 Merlot with other famous Merlots, including great growths from Bordeaux’ Right Bank. La Muse came in first. The roadshow continued in Japan. The price was set at $150 a bottle, but was taken off the market temporarily when the 2001 dot-c,om financial crisis depressed the fine wine market.

Tragedy and regeneration

One evening in June 2010, a relaxed Jackson and Seillan sat outside the Jacksons’ mountainside estate in Sonoma, reminiscing about their first dozen years as partners. The two men looked like an odd couple – Jackson tall, rangy and relaxed, cowboy hat pulled down to shield against the low-hanging sun, Seillan, shorter and compact, sitting forward, coiled like the rugby player he once was.

“I’ll share a story with you that Pierre has heard a few times,” Jackson said, smiling at his French partner. “It was in the 1990s, and Pierre was having trouble getting admitted in the United States to work. I wrote Immigration, I wrote the State Department, I wrote the President. I said, ‘If you don’t let Pierre into the US, you will be making a big mistake!’” As he usually did, Jackson won that battle. But ten months after that conversation, in 2011, Jackson was dead at 80 of cancer, a disease he had been fighting for some time.

As soon as the recession of 2008 started to lessen, Banke continued the acquisition mode she and Jackson had begun, purchasing additional wineries in California and also branching out to Australia, South Africa and Oregon. Today, in addition to Kendall-Jackson, JFW owns such well-known brands as Arrowood, La Crema, Matanzas Creek, Murphy Goode, Siduri, Edmeades, Penner-Ash and WillaKenzie. The brands collectors eye, however, are Vérité’s peers in Napa Valley – Cardinale, La Jota, Lokoya, Freemark Abbey and Mt. Brave. In addition to Vérité, Banke and the Seillans also co-own Anakota in Sonoma County, Château Lassegue in Bordeaux and Arcanum in Italy, all with Seillan as head winemaker. The venture has begun a capital investment program with Vérité, with plans to open next spring a dedicated winemaking and tasting facility.

Being part of a larger, family-owned wine company keeps Vérité’s production costs down, sharing overhead with other brands. While it gets first pick of the grapes from multiple vineyards, other JFW brands also source their grapes in the same plots. Additionally, Vérité’s first 21 vintages were produced at other Jackson Family facilities, and JFW continues to utilise its seasoned marketing acumen. 

There is the question, as Robert Parker’s influence wanes, as to whether or not high Parker scores may be a negative to some wine retailers. “I don’t think anyone would outright say they don’t buy wines that have scored high, but I’m certain that a vast majority of today’s serious buyers would say that they don’t pay attention to scores,” says New York sommelier Arvid Rosengren, 2016 winner of the World’s Best Sommelier competition.

Banke says Parker’s scores were a pleasant surprise, as Vérité is more European in style than the big, extracted Napa Valley Cabernets that Parker preferred. And, she notes, it was his points that drew immediate media attention and validation for Vérité, especially in foreign markets where 60% of the wine is sold. In most markets, it is sold on allocation.

Importantly, the two-family tradition continues as the younger Jacksons and Seillans now all work at JFW and Vérité, with Helene Seillan gradually assuming day-to-day winemaking duties in Sonoma from her 69-year-old father.

As Banke tells the story, in the beginning, Jess told Pierre he would like to make a Merlot in California as good as Petrus. Pierre replied, “Why not better?” Whether or not that goal has been met, Vérité has certainly exceeded the dreams, both in the glass and the marketplace, the two men shared almost 25 years ago.

Roger Morris

This article first appeared in Issue 5, 2019 of Meininger's Wine Business International magazine, available in print or online by subscription

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