{"id":192705,"date":"2026-02-25T07:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T07:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/192705\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T07:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T07:17:09","slug":"another-california-wine-giant-shuts-site-and-axes-staff-as-chaos-rips-across-napa-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/192705\/","title":{"rendered":"Another California wine giant shuts site and axes staff as chaos rips across Napa Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wine makers are pulling the cork on California.<\/p>\n<p>Another giant in the world-famous wine growing region is shutting down and slashing staff, making it the fourth since the start of 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson Family wines has stopped production at its Carneros Hill facility in Sonoma\u2019s Carneros region, laying off more than a dozen employees, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice filed with California authorities on February 12.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Communications director Sean Carrol told the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/food\/wine\/article\/jackson-family-wines-layoffs-21938811.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SF Chronicle<\/a> that Carnero\u2019s Hill \u2013 previously owned by Buena Vista Winery \u2013 \u201cserved as overflow production capacity and was not tied to any specific brand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Jackson Family Wines confirmed the closure of the facility. Ilya S. Savenok<\/p>\n<p>He added the site had \u201cbecome underutilized,\u201d allowing the company to consolidate.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson Family Wines is known as one of the top US wine producers, the sixth largest wine company in the country.<\/p>\n<p>The company is the sixth-largest wine producer in the country. San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>It owns the Kendall-Jackson label and about 40 other brands, producing around six million cases a year, according to an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.winebusiness.com\/wbm\/article\/312711\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">industry review<\/a>. More than 25 of those wineries are in the Golden State.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, major winemaker Gallo <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/19\/us-news\/gallo-wine-closes-napa-winery-and-cuts-jobs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announced the closure of a large production facility<\/a> and the elimination of nearly 100 jobs across the wine growing region of Napa and Sonoma counties.<\/p>\n<p>Considered the world\u2019s largest winemaker by volume, Gallo filed a \u201cwarning\u201d notice with the California Employment Development Department on Feb. 12, confirming it will permanently pull the cork on the Ranch Winery in St. Helena.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson Family Wines owns the famed Kendall-Jackson label. Getty Images for NYCWFF<\/p>\n<p>Gallo is also slashing staff at some of its other labels, including the Louis M. Martini Winery and the Orin Swift Tasting Room in St. Helena, as well as J Vineyards and Frei Ranch in Healdsburg.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGallo is aligning parts of our operations with our long\u2011term business strategy to ensure we remain well\u2011positioned for future success,\u201d a spokesperson for the company told The Post.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs part of this process, we made the difficult decision to reduce certain <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/10\/07\/lifestyle\/california-vineyards-find-booze-free-ways-to-lure-tourists\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wine Country operations<\/a>. These changes are driven by market dynamics, evolving consumer demand, and available capacity across our wineries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, Foley Family Wines &amp; Spirits shut down its production facility for the historic Central Coast winery Chalone.<\/p>\n<p>Four major wine makers have announced closure of sites since the start of 2026. Neilson Barnard<\/p>\n<p>In January, Constellation Brands notified more than 200 people at the Mission Bell Winery in Madera that they would be out of work. And Jean-Charles Boisset Collection closed two Napa Valley tasting rooms.<\/p>\n<p>According to a recent report from Wine Business Monthly, there were 4,727 wineries in California in 2025. As of February 2026, there are 4,646.<\/p>\n<p>The number of <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/08\/13\/lifestyle\/new-gallup-poll-shows-what-americans-are-thinking-about-alcohol\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">American adults who say they consume alcohol<\/a> has fallen to 54%, according to an August 2025 Gallup poll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wine makers are pulling the cork on California. Another giant in the world-famous wine growing region is shutting&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1630,387,7,9,8,1339,4182,13576,4823,3586,61052],"class_list":["post-192705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-alcohol","tag-business","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-food-drink","tag-metro","tag-napa-valley","tag-small-business","tag-us-news","tag-wineries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}