Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/19027
ties include spending over a third of the year on the road as Concannon’s chief evangelist. “It’s important to get out there and tell the story and meet with people and make sure we’re doing the right thing,” says John. “My motto last year was, ‘There’s no handshake at the end of an email.’ I want to shake somebody’s hand, look them in the eye and say ‘We have a deal.” As John reminds THE TASTING PANEL, to differentiate his family brand in a market crowded with more than 3,000 wineries in California alone, “You’d better have a good product, you’d better have a nice package and you’d better have a good price point. Even if you do all that, how do you stand out? I think ultimately it’s with your story.” The family story runs through Concannon’s wines as surely as does the vineyard fruit. “If you can share a story with someone,” says John, “then they can take that bottle home and hold court with their friends and family and say, ‘Hey, this is America’s oldest continuous family-owned winery under the same name.’ We had America’s first professional female winemaker. We’re a brick and mortar company. There’s family behind this. We’re not a ‘critter’ brand, we’re not a virtual brand, we’re 11 (known as the Concannon clones ) which are now planted in many of Napa’s renowned vineyards, and being the first to produce a varietally-labeled Petite Sirah, in 1961. Concannon is still known as one of California’s top Petite Sirah houses. That heritage continues with John Concannon, Jim’s son and James’s great-grandson, who began leading the family business two years ago. The transition from the backyard—or more specifically, the vineyard—to the boardroom has been one that John has embraced with total commitment. “When you’re the owner’s son, you’ve got to work twice as hard to prove yourself,” says John of his early forays into the family business, when, 66 / the tasting panel / november 2010 as a pre-adolescent he found himself working a succession of winery jobs that took him from the cellar to the tasting room. “Dad was really supportive and smart,” says John of his father, who was awarded the California wine industry’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. “He said, ‘Go out and make your own name, follow your own dreams and gain experience with other companies, and if it’s right for you, come back.’” Family and History After a quarter-century working in medical equipment sales and manage- ment, the time was right for John to come back. Now, his responsibili- Concannon winery pioneered the cre- ation of the widely adopted Cabernet Sauvignon clones 7, 8 and 11, known as the Concannon clones.