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Jed Steele, an early winemaker at Kendall-Jackson winery in Santa Rosa and a Lake County vintner, died Oct. 31 of bladder cancer. He was 80 years old.
In 1982, Steele collaborated with vintner Jess Jackson and winemaker Ric Forman to create Kendall-Jacksonâs iconic Vintnerâs Reserve â the countryâs bestselling Chardonnay for over 30 years.
Born in New York City in 1945, Jedediah Tecumseh Steele was 5 years old when his family moved to San Francisco. After majoring in psychology, Steele took a turn toward wine, working his first two harvests at Stony Hill Vineyard in Napa Valley.
While earning his masterâs degree in enology at UC Davis, he was scooped up by Edmeades Winery in Mendocino Countyâs Anderson Valley, where he made wine for the next eight years.
At Kendall-Jackson, his slightly off-dry Vintnerâs Reserve Chardonnay was an immediate hit, with production exceeding one million cases per year within a decade.
When Steele left in 1991, tensions escalated between him and Jackson, whom he sued for money he felt he was owed. Jackson countersued, accusing Steele of stealing Kendall-Jackson Chardonnayâs trade secrets, with Jackson ultimately winning the case.
Lake County became Steeleâs focus starting in the early 1990s, launching his eponymous wine label and eventually purchasing 81 vineyard acres. He became a champion of the little-known region, where land and quality fruit could be obtained at a decent price.
After a stroke in 2020, Steele sold his winery and inventory to Shannon Family of Wines in Kelseyville. Steele is survived by his partner, Paula Doran; his children, Mendocino and Quincy; and his granddaughter, Astrid.