Christopher Carpenter

Chris has been with Jackson Family Wines since 1998. He is currently the Winemaker for Lokoya, Cardinale, Caladan, Mt Brave and La Jota in the Napa Valley and Hickinbotham in Mclaren Vale, South Australia. He is the general manager of Jackson Family Wines vineyard operations in Napa Valley, helping guide the farming and financial outlook for 400+ acres of mostly mountain vineyards. He is intimately involved in the strategic development of environmental strategies around farming for JFW and helps lead several special projects as JFW looks to expand winery and vineyard operations in new geographies.

He established the Napa Valley Chapter of the Slow Food Movement, and served on Slow Food’s National organization board as Chair, overseeing 20,000 members nationwide and working directly with the Executive Director and luminaries in food system work like Carlo Petrini, Alice Waters, Michael Pollan, and others in helping drive food system change. He served on his two daughter’s Spanish immersion grade school, Napa Valley Language Academy, as a member of that school’s charter council. He worked on the board of the Napa Valley Youth Symphony and as chair to that organization bringing in artists like Mark O’Connor, Delfaeyo Marsallis and Angel Romero to perform with the orchestra. He is an alumnus of the California Agricultural Leadership Foundation, Class 34, an organization dedicated to training agricultural professionals on all aspects of California’s current issues and leadership skills.

Chris graduated from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and the University of Illinois, Chicago with a Master of Business Administration in Marketing and International Business. Chris pursued and received his Master of Science in Horticulture from the Department of Viticulture and Enology at the University of California, Davis.

Chris grew up in Boston and Chicago and now lives in the Napa Valley with his wife, Tina. He has two beautiful daughters, Maggie and Sadie.