Randy Ullom’s Influence Goes from Ground to Grape to Glass

Even though he oversees the harvest, blending, aging, and bottling of millions of cases every year, the name Randy Ullom isn’t on a label, and really is unknown to the vast number of people that serve and drink his wines. Ullom is a giant in the business and since March of 1997, Randy Ullom has had one the wine industry’s most prestigious and respected position as Winemaster for Kendall-Jackson Winery. There are many wine makers and wine owners but the title Winemaster is unique because it represents his intimate involvement in the intricacies of the viticultural and winemaking programs of the entire portfolio. Randy Ullom and owner Jess Jackson have produced more award winning wines and more sales than your wine sales representatives will ever tell you. Just last year their flagship product, Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay, earned an unprecedented 90 points from the famed Wine Advocate Robert Parker and for contrast; it was seen on President Obama’s kitchen table.

Randy Ullom is a Midwest guy and was a mining engineering student at the University of Utah before a sabbatical ski trip to Chile turned him toward Ohio State University to study Viticulture and Enology. He made his way to California and a position at DeLoach Vineyards where he contributed to the winery’s meteoric growth and spearheaded the development of De Loach’s reserve wines and consistent gold medal winners for vineyard-designated Zinfandels.

In 1993, Ullom was hired by Jess Jackson to be the winemaker at Camelot Vineyards and gave him the respect and responsibility of heading up a new Chilean operation as founding winemaker and general manager of Viña Calina. In 1996, Ullom helped Jackson establish wine production in Argentina with the Tapiz label and by 2006, he became the company’s Chief Operating Officer. Randy Ullom’s impressive organizational and leadership skills, combined with an exceptional winemaking talent that ultimately influences every wine Kendall-Jackson crafts, from grape to glass.

“Being a family-owned company, we’re not as bound as other companies are to the quarterly income statement to the stockholders. We have a very long-term vision,’ said Ullom in a recent interview. As the new decade begins and the foundation and future of wine sales readies for change it may be time to embrace the passion of family winemakers like Jackson and Ullom.