Jess Stonestreet Jackson Jr.

Jess Stonestreet Jackson Jr. (February 18, 1930 – April 21, 2011) was an American billionaire wine entrepreneur, lawyer, racehorse owner, and businessman.

While studying law he worked as a dock laborer, a Berkeley policeman, and an ambulance driver to put himself through school.

In the late 1950s, Jess Jackson started a law firm in the San Francisco area, specializing in property rights issues.

Faced with the prospect of selling his grapes for a price that wouldn't cover the costs of growing them, he decided to make his own wine.

He decided to produce affordable wines with an emphasis on quality, and, two years later, he released the first Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve Chardonnay.

Jackson and Banke continued to expand their business, eventually owning about 25,000 acres in California, 14,000 of which were planted with wine grapes.

[11] Kendall-Jackson Vintner's Reserve help Chardonnay become the most popular grape varietal[12] amongst American wine drinkers.

[16] He was among several others being inducted that year, including winemaker Warren Winiarski, whose Stag's Leap Cabernet Sauvignon won first place over Chateau Mouton Rothschild and Chateau Haut-Brion in the 1976 Judgment of Paris, and the Beringer Brothers, whose wines helped to establish Napa Valley's reputation as a top grape-growing region.

[17] In 2007, Jackson bought a controlling interest in the champion racehorse Curlin, who won the Preakness Stakes and the Breeders' Cup Classic that year.