
From the moment he planted his first vineyard in California’s Arroyo Seco in 1972, Jerome “Jerry” Lohr had no doubt that he could build a million-case brand. “I didn’t ever want to tell people about it, they’d think it was pompous—that I had a plan to go to 1 million cases,” he says. “It took us 35 years or so, but we got there.” Indeed, 50 years after his first wines were bottled, J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines is now among the most prodigious wineries in the U.S., but you’d be hard-pressed to hear the ever-humble Jerry brag, despite having the credentials to back it up.
From a base of just 280 acres of vineyards in 1971, J. Lohr now owns some 4,000 acres of land, mostly in California’s Central Coast, but also further afoot in Napa Valley; 3,000 of those acres are vineyards, planted to a minimum of eight different varietals at any given time. The winery produces well over 1.5 million cases, and has remained a 1 million-case-plus brand since 2007, according to Impact Databank.
For Jerry’s part, at 87 years old he’s dedicated well over half his life to championing not just the J. Lohr name, but California’s Central Coast, making it a preeminent American wine destination. While he spends less time in the vineyards now than he might’ve, say, 30 years ago, he remains actively involved in the winery’s day-to-day as its CFO, and most days you can find him up at J. Lohr’s San Jose office. Running the business alongside him are his three children, Steve, Cynthia, and Lawrence; altogether, they represent one of the few major family-owned wineries left in California, a triumph given the acceleration of consolidation in recent years. And as the Lohrs tell it, there’s another 50 years of family at J. Lohr to look forward to.

From Humble Beginnings
Born in Raymond, South Dakota in 1937, Jerry grew up a farm boy—he recalls the prosperous family farm as rich with wheat, oats, corn, barley, flax, and the like. Given that there wasn’t a single grape vine in sight, his early interest in wine was far from preordained, and he credits his Catholic faith with putting viticulture on his radar. “We’d go to church every Sunday, and I’d hear all about wines and grape vines during the service,” he recalls. “We raised all sorts of other crops at our farm, but we didn’t have vineyards. I asked my dad, ‘Why don’t we grow grapes here?’ and he told me it was too cold, and that was that.” Still, Jerry wanted to know more, and he had a handful of aunts living in California who he turned to for information. “When my aunts would come visit, I would ask them about wine, and planting vineyards in California,” he says. “On one such visit, my dad’s sister told me, ‘The key grapes that I think Californians are going to accept in the next ten to 15 years are Bordeaux and Burgundy, or Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.’”
This prescient knowledge (it was the early 1950s, after all) was presented to him when he was but a middle school student; not only was he far from drinking age, but in the ’50s it was leaps and bounds more difficult to track down information than it is with today’s tools. Even so, Jerry held on to what his aunt told him. He read as much about wine as he could at the local library, and ultimately carried his fascination with wine with him from an undergraduate education at South Dakota State University (where he majored in engineering) to graduate school at Stanford University (which he chose specifically for its California location) and beyond. “I was at Stanford from 1958 to 1961, and during that time I met my wife, Carol; we were married in 1959, and all three of our children were born in the 1960s,” he says. “I had my Air Force tour up until 1964, then I worked as a civil engineer, and I eventually started a building business, but all throughout this time, wine was very much on my mind.”
Finally, in the late 1960s, his longstanding captivation with viticulture came to a head. “I suggested to my building business partner Bernie Turgeon, ‘Why don’t we start a vineyard and winery, and we can integrate it into where we develop our lots and build our houses [in California’s Central Coast]?’ Bernie had spent time in France and was married to a French woman, so it didn’t take much convincing that a winery would be a great thing for him to retire to.” With his partner’s green light, Jerry jumped into wine full time, investigating the land around him with the keen eye for soil and microclimate that he’d developed through his work as a civil engineer.
During this time, Jerry and Carol were living in Saratoga, California, a city in the southern Bay Area. Jerry had developed a special relationship with a local winery, Paul Masson; the Lohrs would often take family and friends there for visits, and Jerry himself was part of a Paul Masson tasting group. “Paul Masson had vineyards in Soledad, a city in Monterey County, and during one visit, I had a Cabernet that made me go, ‘Eh, that ought to be a little better,’” he says. “They told me, ‘Come back next Saturday.’ I came back, and sure enough, the Cabernet was singing—when I asked them where it came from, they told me about their new vineyards in Arroyo Seco. Well, the next time I had a building meeting in Monterey, I went over to Arroyo Seco and saw the wide open farm country, and that was it.”

An Auspicious Start
At the time of that first Arroyo Seco visit in 1971, there were just three substantial wineries operating in the area: Paul Masson, Almaden Winery, and Wente Vineyards. The region was far from developed, but Jerry saw its potential, noting the cool climate and remarkable soil. By late 1971, he had purchased his first 280 acres, and the land was planted to vines one year later; the first J. Lohr wine, a Petite Sirah, debuted in 1974, alongside the brand’s first winery, the San Jose Wine Center.
These early years were mired in trial and error. “Our initial wines were good, but it was a real learning experience for us,” Jerry says, adding that he had planted 11 different varietals in an effort to learn which ones suited the region best. Soon thereafter, he recognized that most red grapes weren’t a satisfactory fit. “The white wines were solid, but by 1978 we discovered that it really wasn’t the best place for Cabernet, or many other reds at that.”
Thus the hunt for a better Cabernet site began, as Jerry was determined to hang his hat on the very first wines that he had come to know: Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. As he searched, Arroyo Seco and Monterey County gained greater recognition in the American wine world, and Jerry played a key role in that, becoming a founding member of the Monterey Winegrowers Council in 1975 and watching as Arroyo Seco secured an AVA designation of its own in 1983.
As his white wines prospered, a game-changing business opportunity arose in 1984 that would soon thereafter send J. Lohr into the stratosphere. Jerry and five other Arroyo Seco vintners flew to Chicago for a Chardonnay tasting with distributors; just two weeks later, he received a call from a representative of Hyatt hotels, who had attended the tasting. “[The rep] had been impressed with what I said there, and took note of what I’d observed about the quality of red wine versus white wine in Arroyo Seco,” Jerry says. “He came to us saying, ‘We at the Hyatt would like to have a house wine and Mr. Lohr, we’d like to consider working with you on it.’ We were only at 75,000 cases at the time, but we had a business plan in place for 125,000 cases, and Hyatt saw a path where they could help us build that out, by securing at least 500 cases of wine per hotel.”
By aligning with Hyatt, Jerry’s access to bulk wine samples widened substantially, and he was soon tasting wines from all over California. As he conducted these tastings, he came to a couple key realizations: First, Monterey remained the best place for Chardonnay, and second, Cabernet from Paso Robles was top-tier, superior to those from Napa, which were too expensive and all over the board, as well as those from the Central Valley, which similarly suffered from being hit or miss. Of course, Paso Robles was largely untouched at the time, home to some vineyards but lacking the name recognition of Napa or Sonoma. “Those tastings put Paso on the map for us and now, 40 years later, there are more people catching on,” he muses.
With the capital and knowledge that came from the early stages of the Hyatt partnership under his belt, Jerry planted his first vineyards in the region in 1984, and opened the J. Lohr Paso Robles Winery just two years later. From there, J. Lohr’s growth was ascendant—75,000 cases quickly became 125,000 cases, which eventually blossomed into 500,000 cases, and ultimately 1-million-plus—laying the foundation for both the winery’s and Paso Robles’ modern popularity.

Second Generation Ascendant
While Jerry still has a say in every wine that comes out of J. Lohr’s doors, the winery is now under the leadership of his three children as well, each of whom is now a co-owner with a senior role at the business. While they worked at the winery in their younger years, Jerry made future employment contingent on spending ten years elsewhere in the workforce; eventually, all three returned. Steve, the eldest, came on board in 2003 and currently serves as CEO; while Cynthia and Lawrence both re-joined the family business in 2002. Cynthia is now chief brand officer, while Lawrence, the youngest, holds the dual titles of COO and president.
Of course, today’s wine business is quite a bit different than it was when Jerry bottled his first wine, and all three Lohr children bring something different to the table. “Like Dad, I’m a civil engineer by trade, so I’m analytical in the way that I look at things—I’m exceedingly detail-oriented, but also see the big picture,” explains Steve. “That’s balanced by Cynthia’s incredible marketing skills and brand storytelling, and Lawrence has done an amazing job of getting involved in the vineyards and understanding all the different nuances there.”
While Steve is focused on the overall management of and strategizing for J. Lohr, with a special focus on sales and the financials, Cynthia manages marketing and is active in restructuring the company’s wine clubs and DTC business. Lawrence, meanwhile, oversees the company’s vineyards, supervising the 4,200 acres that J. Lohr owns across five of California’s 11 sub-AVAs.

The Modern J. Lohr Portfolio
At the forefront of J. Lohr’s portfolio is the J. Lohr Estates tier, which first launched in 1987 with Riverstone Chardonnay. Currently comprised of six wines, (all retail priced at $20 and under), the Estates tier is a super-premium range that’s sourced exclusively from J. Lohr vineyards in Monterey County and Paso Robles. Today, the lineup is led by Seven Oaks Cabernet, a Paso Robles-grown Cabernet Sauvignon that has reigned on and off as the top-selling appellation Cabernet in the $10-$20 segment by sales value, recently holding the No.-1 spot for 13 weeks this year, according to Nielsen.
Elsewhere in the Estates tier, the long-running Riverstone Chardonnay is the range’s second-most popular wine. The lineup is rounded out by Los Osos Merlot, Falcon’s Perch Pinot Noir, South Ridge Syrah, and Flume Crossing Sauvignon Blanc; the red wines are harvested from Paso Robles, with the exception of the Pinot Noir, which is grown in Monterey County alongside every Estates tier white wine.
While the brunt of J. Lohr’s production is in the Estates tier, the company has succeeded with higher price points. The Vineyard Series ($22-$60 a 750-ml.), which highlights small vineyard blocks, was introduced in 1998, and reflects the upper echelons of the J. Lohr portfolio. As with the Estates tier, two varietals—Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay—dominate the lineup, and they’re supplemented by a variety of wines, including Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, Grenache-based rosé, and a late harvest Riesling. The Vineyard Series also features J. Lohr’s sole Napa Cabernet, Carol’s Vineyard, which is sourced from a 31-acre vineyard named for Jerry’s late wife. The Vineyard Series eked out gains of 1.9% to 51,000 cases in 2023, according to Impact Databank.
Also at J. Lohr’s higher end are the Signature Cabernet Sauvignon, a Cabernet Sauvignon ($100 a 750-ml.) launched in 2013 that blends fruit from the company’s best Paso Robles plots; the Cuvee Series, a trio of red blends priced at $50; Pure Paso proprietary red blend ($27), a wine that’s primarily Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Sirah sourced from the Paso sub-regions El Pomar and Estrella District, respectively, with small quantities of Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Malbec blended in; and the Gesture line ($35-$45), a winery- and DTC-exclusive that focuses on Rhône varietals and blends. Cynthia was instrumental in the launch of the latter. “Gesture is a token of appreciation for our wine club members and the visitors to our wine centers, but it’s also really allowed for freedom and flexibility for our winemakers, to further test and trial some of the varieties that they were interested in, such as Mourvèdre, Roussane, or Grenache Blanc, but didn’t have a platform for,” she notes. “It’s been so robust and exciting to see just how far we can advance our DTC business, and put emphasis on these limited release bottles, as opposed to merely discounting wine for our wine club members, which is a model that the early wine business grew up with.”
For non-wine club members, Gesture is available at either J. Lohr’s San Jose Wine Center or its Paso Robles Winery, which is the more traditional experience of the two, surrounded by vineyards as it is (the San Jose location is situated in San Jose proper). Both centers were renovated over Covid-19, with Cynthia overseeing their reimagining; at both, there’s now heightened emphasis on elevated tasting experiences and education. In tandem with the reopening of both wine centers in 2022, Cynthia also spearheaded the introduction of J. Lohr Monterey Roots. The range spotlights the company’s history of viticulture and winemaking in Monterey County, and features the Bay Mist White Riesling and Wildflower Valdiguié wines, each priced at $13 a 750-ml.
When it comes to winery exclusives and J. Lohr’s more site-specific labels, Lawrence says the company is always eyeing new possibilities. “Because we have all of these vineyards from which we source the fruit, we have the ability to add or subtract the number of exclusive wines that we make, and those wines are often what the media and wine critics are drawn towards,” he says. “They have incredible stories because they’re site-specific and represent the very best of our terroir, and we acknowledge as a company that’s where the future of wine lies. It’s a direction we want to head in as we continue to learn more about every single sub block within all our vineyards.”
Given the success of the winery and its vast array of vineyard holdings, the family has been approached by prospective buyers a handful of times throughout the years—and rejected offers at every turn. “We’re family owned, it’s the definition of who we are,” says Steve. “Invariably what happens when you sell your winery and somebody else starts trading on that good name that you spent decades building is that it may then water down the legacy, and take down the quality that you built your reputation on.”
So, will J. Lohr be here for another 50 years? For the Lohrs, that’s a resounding yes. “There’s still a lot of opportunity in this industry, and there’s going to be a big shakeout, without a doubt,” Steve predicts. “It’s happening right now with wineries being sold on a regular basis, and there’ll be a lot more of those—but we won’t be one of them. We’re here for the long term.”