Quietly, and curiously somewhat inconspicuously, Kendall-Jackson – the U.S.’s ninth largest wine company – is deepening its footprint in Napa Valley’s varied soils. Through KJ’s fine-wine division, Jackson Family Farms, and further with its high-end Artisan & Estates entity, the corporation finds itself going head-to-head in the valley with Constellation Brands (at No. 2) and Foster’s (No. 5).

Constellation, with its Icon Estates brands in the Napa Valley (Opus One, Robert Mondavi, Franciscan, Mount Veeder) and Foster’s with its Beringer-Blass division (Beringer, Stags’ Leap Winery, Etude, St. Clement) seem to be concentrating on single vineyards. KJ, on the other hand, is focusing more on producing wines from 11 of the valley’s soon-to-be 15 AVAs (American Viticultural Areas). (Note: Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, listed at No. 10, has just begun to make single-AVA wines as part of its Conn Creek Winery portfolio.)

With its Atalon and Lokoya brands and its recently purchased La Jota and Freemark Abbey Winery, A&E winemakers Thomas Peffer, Ted Edwards and Chris Carpenter are sourcing fruit from just about every region in the valley beginning with the 2005 vintage. A&E owns three of the 11 vineyards in the Napa Valley from which it uses fruit – Keyes on Howell Mountain, La Jota Vineyard it bought last year, and Veeder Peak on Mount Veeder.

A spreadsheet of those 11 vineyards reveals these variables: Altitude ranges from 40 feet (Carneros Hills) to 1,800 (Keyes). The age of the vines runs the gamut from four years (Côte de Geyser, Keyes) to 10 (Carneros Hills, To Kalon). With the ’05 vintage, the pH goes from 3.50 (Carneros) to 3.89 (Spring Mountain). The listed alcohol percentages range from 12.3 (Freemark Abbey Ahern) to 15.3 (Spring Mountain).

All wines used 100 percent new French oak with the exception of the Atalon Carneros Merlot (10% used American, 72% used French), and Atalon Calistoga Cab (50% new French). All toast levels were medium-plus, save for the two aforementioned wines, which were medium. All the wines spent from 14 to 16 ½ months in barrel except for the Atalon Merlot, which remained in wood for only 10.4 months.

With the exception of A&E’s Cardinale Estate brand in Oakville (which shares a winery with Lokoya) that produces a single Cabernet Sauvignon from a blend of AVA vineyards, each of A&E’s wines does and will get an AVA designation on their labels.

Atalon, which is in Calistoga (whose AVA is pending) and is made by Peffer, has and will have a Los Carneros-designated Merlot (from the Carneros Hills Vineyard), an Atlas Peak Cabernet (Stagecoach), an Oakville Cabernet (Beckstoffer To Kalon), and a Calistoga Cabernet (Côte de Geyser). A Napa Valley-designated Cabernet and Merlot are also produced at Atalon.

Edwards is the winemaker at historic Freemark Abbey in St. Helena, which was purchased by A&E a few months ago. Freemark has been sourcing Cabernet since 1970 from the equally historic Bosché Vineyard in Rutherford and will continue to do so. The Sycamore Vineyard, also in Rutherford, which has been used by Freemark for 23 years, will also be continued as a vineyard/AVA designate. In addition, the Ahern Vineyard at the winery will be given a St. Helena AVA designation.

That leaves the Cardinale, Lokoya and La Jota brands under the umbrella of Chris Carpenter. The winemaker harvests grapes from the Stags Leap District (Taylor Vineyard), Howell Mountain (Keyes), Diamond Mountain (Carol), Spring Mountain (Spring Mountain Vineyard), Mount Veeder (Veeder Peak), and from Beckstoffer’s To Kalon for the Cardinale blend.