“Raised in the small town of St. Helena, her father was a writer and a historian and her Italian great-grandfather was a winemaker in Sonoma County. Her roots in this special place instilled in Jane the value of family and community, and of handing down the family’s Napa Valley winemaking tradition to the next generation. ”

Jane left the Napa Valley to go college, where she studied English Literature at Oxford University in England and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California. Graduating in 1985, she went to work for IBM in San Francisco as an account manager where she lived at that time. To be closer to home she and William moved to Napa and Jane became the Controller/HR Director for Codorniu Napa (now Artesa Winery).

Jane began consulting for wineries in Finance/Accounting and it wasn’t long before she and William decided to move back to St. Helena where they had grown up. Jane’s career and experience proved enormously valuable when she and William discovered that a ghost winery was for sale next door to St. Clement Winery in St Helena, where William was the winemaker. Her knowledge of how to manage a winery enabled them to buy the historic 1873 building and to embark on a five-year journey to restore the old stone building and its neglected historic gardens, plant the estate vineyard and establish William Cole Vineyards.

Today, Jane runs the business side of the winery and enjoys partaking in the marketing and design of the wine labels and packaging. “Sharing collective goals with my family and applying our individual talents is what life is all about,” Jane says. For the Ballentine’s this translates as enjoying the family pleasures of living and working in their winery while creating an exceptional Cabernet Sauvignon. It’s simply a matter of tradition and legacy.