April 11, 2025 – On May 2, 2012, Jared Weaver, pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels, threw a no-hitter against the Minnesota Twins at Angels Field. On his first at bat during that game, Chris Iannetta, Angels catcher in his first year with the Angels after being traded from the Colorado Rockies, broke his wrist and immediately went on the IL list for injured players. One week later, Vernon Wells, Angels second baseman, tore a thumb ligament when he slid into second base, also placing him on the IL list. Both in rehab for three months, Chris and Vernon spent a lot of time together, training to be able to return to the active roster and sharing downtime that gave them the opportunity to really get to know each other. They discovered they had a lot in common. First and foremost, they both cherished time with their families and friends. Over dinner and a bottle of wine, Chris and Vernon learned they also shared an entrepreneurial spirit. From that moment on, it was game on. Instead of turning lemons into lemonade, they decided to turn grapes into wine.
“We both love wine. We both wanted to do something more than baseball. It all began over a bottle of wine, just talking about how it would be cool to do it ourselves,” Chris said to Chaîne during a Nov. 19, 2024 telephone interview.
“We decided to do it once one or both of us were done playing baseball,” Vernon said to Chaîne during a Nov. 20, 2024 telephone interview. With Vernon’s plan to retire from Major League Baseball (MLB) in 2013, it didn’t take long before JACK Winery in Napa, California was born, a passion project at first as Vernon describes it.
JACK is derived from the initials of their children – Jayce, Ashlyn, Christian and Kylie. JACK Winery, their boutique brand founded in 2012, specializes in cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir that is sold direct to consumer through in person tastings and their wine club. “We started with 50 cases of cab and a website and grew it from there,” Chris said.
Chris was drawn to Napa from his first visit. “It’s a little oasis that I really treasure. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to start a wine label because I fell in love with the Valley,” he said. “It’s a whole other world. It really is. It’s kind of a throwback. It’s what everyone imagines mid-century was like. Everyone knows each other. It’s a small community. Everyone rallies around each other when you are dealing with adversity.”
Vernon agrees. He highlights talking with vintners who have been making wine in the Napa Valley for a long time and hearing their stories. “Those opportunities are really rare when you look at the grand scheme of life. Understanding what you’re getting into; it’s not a short term play, It’s possibly a generational family project,” Vernon said.
With six years of experience in the wine industry, in 2018, Chris and Vernon had the opportunity to acquire the Two Old Dogs label, already a successful brand founded by the Lamb family, that had widespread retail distribution. Chris said the acquisition gave them a well rounded portfolio that they are trying to grow year over year. Now six years after the acquisition, Chris reports they routinely sell out their Two Old Dogs wine and cap their JACK production at 500 cases annually.
MLB Careers
It took a lifetime of dedication and practice, along with a hefty dose of natural talent, for Vernon and Chris to excel at the highest level of their sport. While baseball and the wine industry may seem light years apart, both Chris and Vernon leveraged their MLB experience to grow their business, a key factor in their success.
“I don’t think you learn much when you win. I think when you lose is when you get all the life lessons out if it. Losing a big game, whatever it may be, you have to look in the mirror and figure out what you did wrong. How can I problem solve to get better the next time? It’s a lot like that in business. You’re not going to jump into business, especially this one, and do everything right from the beginning. You’re going to make a lot of mistakes. You’re going to trial and error, find out what works and what doesn’t. You’re going to constantly adapt. That’s what you have to do in sports, constantly adapt, reinvent yourself,” Chris said.
Vernon added that having passion for your business is essential but growing it takes a lot of time and strategy. “It’s going to take a whole lot longer than you anticipate,” he said. He and Chris studied successful wineries and looked at benchmarks those wineries had reached. How were they able to sustain their business? “It’s not an easy society to break into. Some families have been in it for hundreds of years so understanding that and knowing who the people are and what drives them is part of it. And that takes a lot of time. The families that make Napa what it is, they are looked at as royalty in that world,” Vernon said.
For Chris, that part of the wine business was a surprise to him. He initially focused on learning everything he could about growing and harvesting grapes and producing wine. “What I quickly realized was you end up being in more of the hospitality business than you are in the actual business. It’s all front facing. It’s all relationships, talking with people, customers and vendors. It was everything out of my comfort zone,” he said. “I’m a little bit of an introvert. I’m not good at public speaking.”
Vernon said he shares that trait with Chris. In the dugout, the two of them approached their teammates in a similar way to build relationships, a part of the game few people talk about but one that is vital to the game. “We have two very similar personalities. When something needed to be said, it was to build relationships with our teammates. We are both like that. It allowed us to draw closer. Competition is one thing. But the relationship side of the game lasts far longer,” Vernon said.
Chris and Vernon did leverage the competitive side of their baseball careers as well to help them succeed in the wine industry. “One of the biggest things you have to do in the wine industry is overcome adversity. You’re at the mercy of so many factors. And one thing as an athlete that we learned to do is trust the process we have,” Chris said.
So they first focused on establishing their winemaking process. Through a contact made at a trade show, they met Julien Fayard, a winemaker who grew up in Provence, France, worked on his family’s property, worked for Lafite, completed internships throughout France, and produced his first 100 point wine in the United States. Julien became part of their team. “We really believe in our winemaker, Julien. We believe he makes fantastic wine and in his ability to source some of the best grapes in Napa,” Chris said.
Customers embraced JACK Cabernet Sauvignon from its first vintage, clearly a home run for rookie winemakers! That success gave Chris and Vernon the comfort level to add a new varietal to their portfolio. Julien suggested making a Rose from grapes growing on a vineyard outside of Napa that had a similar terroir to Provence. Chris said Julien produced a really good wine but after an analysis that showed Rose was oversaturated in the market, they chose to begin producing pinot noir from Napa grapes instead. They trusted their process and are totally aligned with Julien’s philosophy to take the French approach to winemaking with a balanced flavor profile.
“Napa gets extremely hedonistic when it comes to their cabs with big, bold flavors. Customers demand to accentuate those flavors. What Julien is trying to do is to take that French approach where everything comes back into balance blending the terroir, the barrel you use, every factor that goes into wine from start to finish putting everything back in balance to create a cab that really expresses multiple layers as opposed to one predominant flavor or flavor profile,” Chris said. “He [Julien] says he likes to create Napa wine with a French kiss, which I thought was a really good way of summarizing what he does.”
For both their JACK and Two Old Dogs labels, they strive to produce wine that is approachable from day one but can also beautifully age for one to two decades in a cellar, Chris added.
Vernon explained their two labels offer different price points for customers without sacrificing quality because of Julien. “He has proven over and over how great he is at putting excellent juice in a bottle and it doing really well. It’s a blessing for us,” Vernon said.
What surprised Vernon about the wine industry? “For me, learning the critic side of it and seeing the complexity of palates. That part amazes me. The things that they smell, the things that they taste – there is an art to it. It’s the reason they have the titles they do. They are savants when it comes to what touches their palates.”
From early morning to late at night in any North American time zone, Chris and Vernon are on call as winery owners because Chris lives in Massachusetts and Vernon lives in Texas. In addition, Chris is very busy working with the MLB Players Association starting Players Way, a youth development company seeking to be the trusted source of information for young baseball players and their parents with camps and clinics as well to help youth develop their skills. All Players Way instructors are former MLB players, according to their website.
“I try to time manage as best I can. We have a really good team on our wine side to fill in the gaps,” Chris said. Now with 12 years of experience in the wine industry, his early focus on process in the wine world is paying dividends. “It’s understanding your brand inside and out and understanding your messaging inside and out. It’s using that knowledge you might get in a conversation to sell yourself and your brand at the same time,” he added.
For the many people who dream of starting a winery, Chris has some advice. Owners must plan for the unknown. The pandemic challenged them as it did for millions of businesses across the country. “It was tough, definitely tough. We had to be smart with finances. You can’t get too far ahead of yourself. You can’t invest too much in one vintage. You have to be set up for the long haul.”
Chris advises wine drinkers to throw out price point when considering what wine to purchase, whether at retail or at a restaurant. Explore all options, he adds. “Throw price point and throw names out the window. Just find out what you like. It doesn’t matter how much a wine costs or how little a wine costs, if you like it, it’s good. It’s as simple as that.”
What is important is sharing that bottle of wine with family and friends.
“Family is first, sitting around, having dinner and having a glass of wine and conversation with my wife and my young men now. Those opportunities are something we look forward to as a family. When we are around friends, it’s a very low key party to be able to sit around and drink wine, talk about our families, our different experiences. There are so many good things that happen with a group,” Vernon said. “For our brand to be part of it, it’s what drives us to continue and make it the best it can possibly be.”
That’s a grand slam home run in the most important game of all – life!
WINE TASTING – May 1, 2025 at 7 p.m. ET
Join Julien Fayard, JACK Winery’s head winemaker, and Tyler Hinsley, JACK Winery’s director of hospitality, for an exclusive private Zoom tasting. For more information and to purchase wine for the tasting, visit the JACK Winery Cuvée Wine Tasting. To register for the wine tasting, visit the JACK Winery Cuvée Wine Tasting.