How a Small Dixon Winery Sells Its Wine

In past articles I talked about how the Jess Jones winery near Dixon grows its grapes and turns them into wine. This article will talk about how Jess publicizes and sells his wine.

Jess was no stranger to selling a product because he formerly sold his own brand of self-grown popcorn.

As he evolved from growing and selling grapes to turning them into wine, he didn’t follow the traditional model of trying to get his wines into as many stores as possible and growing the business as fast as possible. Maybe a much younger man would’ve taken that route, but Jess and his wife Mel see their winery as a retirement business and want to stay small.

So, currently their wine is sold in stores only at Dixon’s Safeway (which carries four varieties), Pedrick Produce and the Yolo fruit stand.

But by far, most of his wine is sold via his tasting room and at events taking place at the vineyard.

Events are the other side of their business – holding them was more or less the brainchild of Jess’s wife Mel when she retired from teaching. Having events at a small country winery has its attractions, and to that end the Joneses built (in addition to their large and high-ceilinged tasting room) a large white-tent area with a floor, and landscaping with a circular ceremonial area and an antique wagon. They can host events with up to 250 people, although one time 300 unexpectedly showed up and were  accommodated.

The Joneses decided against serving liquor at these events.

This area has been used for everything from weddings to baptisms and other gatherings and has been especially popular with the Hispanic community. Usually, the hosts buy several cases of Jones’ wine for the event and guests have the chance to taste other Jess Jones wines in the tasting room. Guests tend to like the sweeter wines, and they will often return to buy more wine later. During my visit two women from Fairfield arrived to buy a case of Jess Jones Scarlet Zinfandel (they had attended a baptism at the winery).

Word of mouth, says Jess, has provided him with his best advertising.

The winery’s tasting room is currently open every day of the week from 1 to 5:30 p.m. unless Jess and his wife are gone. So it might be best to call 530-304-3806 to make sure tasting is being offered on a particular day. Wine tasting is free. The winery also reaches out via its colorful web site at www.jessjonesvineyard.com.

To build a regular clientele, the winery offers a wine club with no membership fee, with four wine pick-up events per year. Members receive discounts on their wine whenever it’s purchased. There’s also a bottle-your-own-wine event this September.

The winery also ships wine via UPS to 39 states in the U.S.

Jess Jones participates in Dixon’s annual Wine Stroll and in the Solano Food and Wine Jubilee in Vacaville, and helps out with some charity events. Senior groups often visit for wine tasting. The winery had a float in the last May Fair parade.

Jess Jones’ wines are “value priced” between $6 to $16, with his port wines at the high end of the scale. Jones offers two varieties of port wines, which have added alcohol. Jess says that it costs between $1 and $1.50 for a wine bottle, its label and its packaging. Some visitors, he says, tell him his wine could sell for more, while others say his prices are too high. “This can happen within the same hour,” he says.

High prices don’t guarantee wine quality, says Jones.

He says that wine consumers tend to be leery of alternative methods of packaging wine, such as using Mylar plastic bags inside cardboard boxes and screw-tops for bottles, because they associate them with cheap, mass-produced wine. Actually, he says, Mylar bags are better because they have no air in them, and metal screw-tops don’t have the problems associated with cork.

Lately, there has been an increased demand for grapes, and last year Jess sold 85 percent of his grapes to home winemakers. This year that will be reduced to 60 percent because he needs to replenish stocks of his own wine.

Jess says he doesn’t see the other winery near Dixon, Purple Pearl, as competition. In fact, “It would be better if we had eight wineries in Dixon – then we’d be a wine destination. And that may happen some day.”

Jess and Mel Jones are kept busy with their winemaking and events hosting. But Jess laments that they won’t be able to keep up the current pace forever, and other younger family members haven’t shown an interest in eventually taking over the business.

The winery is three miles south of downtown Dixon just off Hwy. 113 (and just south of Midway Rd.) at 6496 Jones Lane. To get to the winery, one drives about a quarter mile down a gravel road. There are plenty of signs indicating the turnoff.