Striving for Perfection and Finding Truth: Tasting 20 Years of Vérité
The year was 1995. Jess Jackson and his wife Barbara Banke were riding high on the wave of success that had propelled Kendall-Jackson from upstart wine producer to become something of a giant in the American wine business.
Like other American producers of a certain scale, Jackson and Banke began to build relationships outside the United States, and at the time, the place to do that was VinExpo, the biannual wine exhibition held in Bordeaux. During her inaugural visit, Banke, who spoke excellent French, was introduced by a mutual friend to Pierre Seillan, a barrel-chested, big-fisted former rugby player from Gascony.