Penner-Ash Wine Cellars Sold to Mega Californian Wine Company

Founded in 1998, Penner-Ash Wine Cellars is one of Oregon's most prominent wineries, regularly collaborating with some of Portland's best chefs on dinners and events, and today, word dropped by way of Wine Spectator that Jackson Family Wines, a company that owns many wineries around the world—it all started back in 1982 with Kendall-Jackson chardonnay—bought the iconic winery. Jackson Family Wines came to Oregon in 2014, when it purchased Solara Estate Winery's former winery and estate, and with Penner-Ash, it now owns six Oregon wineries and 1300 acres of land in Oregon.

Speaking with Wine Spectator, Penner-Ash founders and owners Ron and Lynn Penner-Ash explained the sale, commenting that they're looking to retire and neither of their children want to enter the winemaking industry. Jackson Family Wines hasn't announced any major changes to how wine will be made at Penner-Ash, and Lynn, the first female winemaker hired in Oregon, will continue to make wine there for now.

The Penner-Ash Facebook page highlights the following quote from the article:

"To grow our successful business has taken a lot of energy. We realized we were spending too much of our time on the business side, dealing with distributors and label compliances. We are impressed with how well [Jackson Family] has worked with the growers here, and we're impressed with the wines they've made. That's given us confidence."
—Lynn Penner-Ash, who will stay on as winemaker