Jackson Family Wines closes Carneros facility with 13 redundancies
California’s sixth-largest wine company, Jackson Family Wines, has shuttered a Sonoma production site, resulting in 13 job losses. The move comes amid a spate of cutbacks across the state’s wine sector, as reported by filings with California authorities.
Jackson Family Wines has permanently closed its Carneros Hill Winery in Sonoma’s Carneros region, according to a worker adjustment and retraining notice filed with California authorities on 12 February.
Sean Carroll, director of communications, Jackson Family Wines, told the drinks business: “We have closed our Carneros facility, which served as overflow production capacity and was not tied to any specific brand. The site had become underutilised, and we consolidated operations accordingly. Thirteen roles were impacted, which is always the hardest part of decisions like this.”
The company is best known for its Kendall Jackson Chardonnay and produces 6 million cases of wine a year. It owns 40 wine brands across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, with more than 25 wineries in California.
A difficult season for California wine
The decision places Jackson Family Wines among several sizeable operators to announce retrenchment in 2026.
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As previously reported by the drinks business, E. & J. Gallo Winery has filed notice of the permanent closure of the Ranch Winery, a 28-hectare production facility in St Helena. The move will result in 56 job losses, according to the same worker adjustment and retraining notice. Additional reductions affect Louis M. Martini Winery and the Orin Swift tasting room in St Helena, as well as J Vineyards and Frei Ranch in Healdsburg, totalling 93 layoffs across the sites, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Earlier this month, Foley Family Wines & Spirits closed the production facility for the historic Central Coast winery Chalone. In January, Constellation Brands laid off more than 200 people at the Mission Bell Winery in Madera. The Boisset Collection has also closed two Napa Valley tasting rooms.
There have also been signs of strain elsewhere. Trinchero Family Wine & Spirits, the third largest US wine company, has listed two of its leading vineyards for sale. Treasury Wine Estates, the seventh largest US wine company, paused dividend payments following a large writedown on its US businesses and a 17% drop in revenue over half year.
Vineyard contraction gathers pace
The contraction is not confined to wineries; between October 2024 and August 2025, 38,134 acres of vineyards in California were grubbed up, according to Natalie Collins, president of the California Association of Winegrape Growers.
In an interview with db, Stuart Spencer, executive director of the Lodi Wine Grape Commission, described the market in stark terms: “It’s a bloodbath for all grape growers across California. It is the worst market condition growers have seen in their lifetime, with farmers in their 80s telling me they have never seen it this bad before.”
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