Report: Jackson Family Wines to open huge American Canyon distribution center

Jackson Family Wines, one of the nation’s largest wine producers, hopes to open a 650,000-square foot, $29 million warehouse and distribution center in American Canyon by early next year, according to a report Tuesday in the Napa Valley Register.

Up to five million cases of wine, or 60 million bottles, will be shipped annually, according to the Register account. It reported Oct. 20 that the giant distribution center -- “the size of nine football fields -- will begin distributing wines around the country by road and rail in February.”

Santa Rosa-based Jackson Family Wines gained a temporary occupancy permit from the city, allowing it to move into the complex while landscaping is completed, the Register said. Kendall-Jackson wines, along with about 40 other labels produced by clients of Napa trucking company Biagi Brothers, will be shipped from the new center, the paper reported.

Biagi, which handles truck shipments for Kendall-Jackson, will occupy about 27 percent of the warehouse.

The Register reported that Jackson Family Wines is consolidating distribution now handled “in Napa, Santa Rosa, Windsor and elsewhere under one roof.”

Indianapolis-based Scannell Properties developed the property, which is seeking LEED certification for its “green” properties; Sierra View is the project’s general contractor.

Jackson Family Wines finished in 9th place on Wine Business’s annual list of the top U.S. wine producers, published in February, with 5 million cases sold in 2008.