CEO/Owner Manages the winery on a daily basis. After a successful decade stint in technology, Kimberly earned her MBA at Vanderbilt and took over the business in 2003. From the day she stepped in (at 200 cases in production), Kimberly handled every function of the business. Now that JAX has grown to 8,000 cases in production, she shares the responsibility with her incredibly devoted team. Her passion and vision is clear when she shares her story. She loves to speak about her experiences building her business and her philosophy going forward.
Co-Owner/Founder Now involved in real estate development in Australia, Trent joins regular JAX conference calls and has been instrumental in our marketing, sales, and distribution strategy. Eventually Trent hopes to become more involved in the daily operations.
“The Visionary” Vintner Green thumb David Jackson tracks his Calistoga Cabernet Sauvignon vines from the day the bud breaks through harvest. David is absolutely integral to the winery as he provides the fruit source for our estate Cabernet Sauvignon. A passionate green thumb, David encouraged and supported Kimberly and Trent to launch the winery using the fruit form his vineyard in northern Calistoga.
“The Artist” An incredible artist and designer, Jane has been actively involved in the label design and branding process at JAX Vineyards. Jane also designed the beautiful provincial style tasting room and grounds. Her most recent and incredible contribution to JAX is her incredible art comprised of mixed media and often incorporating JAX in her pieces. Her art will be regularly profiled in the news and events section. Recently Jane has become an integral member of our blending team. Jane has helped determine the final blends of many of our recent releases.
Board Member/Financial Advisor Brenton helps with financing plans, future growth decisions, income forecasting, and sales forecasting.
National Sales Manager Colorful, enthusiastic and charming, Alexis canvases the country pouring JAX wines to premium restaurant sommeliers and high end retailers. Wine lovers defect quickly after an informative and hard to forget wine tasting with Alexis. Now based in Florida, she is building the state to be our top performer.
Controller Originally hired to be our bookkeeper, Ingrid has morphed into an invaluable role for the winery. Ingrid’s hyper entrepreneurial spirit is impossible to miss. Now our controller, she handles shipping, the wine club, she is our chef at all auction and wine tasting events (working at Wolfgang Puck formerly), she handles all licenses and permits throughout the country, and she even dogsat our VP of Barketing CJ when Kimberly traveled for JAX. Invaluable!!
Tasting Room Manager Lovely Marjorie handles all private tastings/cheese pairings at our tasting room in Calistoga. We interviewed individuals all over Napa Valley for the ideal wine tasting room manager to no avail. Finally, we recruited Marjorie from the Peninsula to handle our incredible wine and cheese pairing experience at JAX Vineyards. Marjorie is extremely knowledgeable, poised, incredibly articulate, and very passionate about her role. We decided that this was an extremely important hire. Wouldn’t you want to be sipping great wine with a smart, high qualified and cool young lady?
JAX Winemaker A Napa Valley native and second generation winemaker, Kirk has been exposed to the world of winemaking from day one under the watchful eye of his father, Nils Venge. His passion for the industry continued to grow through college at UC Davis followed by tenures at several wineries including Mumm, Raptura Vintners in New Zealand, and finally Venge Vineyards. Working with our vineyards since 2003, Kirk has a keen involvement in the redevelopment, clone selection and farming practices of our vineyard site. Most importantly, he crafts our fruit into the elegant and well balanced wines that we enjoy year over year.
Y3 Winemaker Growing up among the vineyard crews at his father’s winery at Hunter Farms, Rob’s passion for winemaking blossomed at an early age. After graduating from UC Davis, Rob gained experience winemaking at Groth, Robert Keenan Winery, Markham Vineyards and Sterling Vineyards. His success story began when working alongside Nils Venge at Groth when they earned 100 points on the 1985 Cabernet Sauvignon. Rob makes incredibly pure wines that "accurately reflect their varietal." He avoids excessive styling such as oak and maloloactic fermentation such that the underlying fruit can shine. Under Y3, Rob crafts wonderful wines that are constantly earning us that famous wow-factor.
VP of Barketing CJ, our gentle and loving golden retriever, has been an integral member of the JAX team from the day we started. CJ joined Kimberly on every restaurant sales call (waiting eagerly outside San Francisco restaurants), every bottling date, every wine tasting and every long day at the JAX office in San Francisco. CJ’s tireless enthusiasm, love and patience will always be remembered by all of us at JAX. In loving memory of CJ Jackson (2000-2009).
Future JAX Team Player Exposed to wine tastings, bottling, sales, and days at the office at a very young age, Morgan is poised to be a future member of the JAX team. Although her future role is unclear (and based on her preferences), we look forward to her helping hand and hope that she will share our passion as we do.