How To Spend Your Wine Wealth 1.0

Posted by Tom Wark on Oct 27, 2005

Conspicuous consumption has always been a hallmark of the very rich. We of the "not quite rich" set have always been fascinated by what the our fiscal betters choose to indulge in. The wine industry has always attracted the very rich who like rich boys in blue britches roaming through a toy store, have tended to buy the biggest and best wineries or spent marvelous sums on creating something that might be the biggest or best.

Then there are those who made their money in the wine business and look outside the vineyards for their toys. Jess Jackson of Kendall-Jackson Winery and Artisan Estates is one such vintner and one who’s chosen toys really are interesting.

Mr. Jackson recently paid $600,000 for a colt. To quote the news at "Breedingracing.com":

In the US sale ring, wine industry leviathan Jess Jackson’s Stonestreet
Stables paid the Day-2 top price of US$600,000 for a Distorted Humor
colt at the 3-day Fasig-Tipton Kentucky October yearling sale at
Newtown Paddocks in Lexington, reported thoroughbredtimes.com. The Kentucky-bred colt (consigned by James Keogh/Grovendale as agent) is from Lear Fan mare Happy Nation.

I’m not even sure what all that means. What it does mean, however, is lots of fun for a man who has treated the wine industry not only as a source of wealth. I’ve long been impressive by Jess Jackson because he knows a good vineyard location and a good winery when he sees one, but also because he has been a huge supporter of small wineries as well as fairness in the wine industry. He’s put his money where his mouth is too, often helping a number of political and charitable causes linked to the wine industry that truly deserve the support.

So, as it turns out, Jess Jackson provides us with a multitude of reasons to appreciate him: his wines, his commitment to the American wine industry and its small wineries, and his most interesting display of conspicuous consumption.