About Rowland Taylor Vineyards
Watch our Story
The Rowland Taylor Story
“As a wine drinker I think of varieties; as a partner of wine-makers, clones; as a businessman, integrity…”
– Kerr Taylor
After college Kerr Taylor, our founder, took a trip to Europe. While having coffee in a café in Florence, he asked an elderly gentleman, “Who owns these beautiful properties surrounding these thousand-year old plazas?” The man replied, “These properties are owned by the founding families of Florence. The families pass them down from generation to generation. They are never sold. They are grandissimo!” Kerr translated the Italian word for “great” to mean “irreplaceable.” At that moment something clicked in Kerr’s mind. “That’s it!” he thought. “I will spend my life investing in the irreplaceable.”
Over the past few decades, Rowland Taylor, LLC, and its predecessors have focused on investing in the irreplaceable. This vision statement has led Kerr and his team to build successful organizations in real estate, private equity, agriculture, and philanthropy. Along the way, the team built what he considers the most important ingredient in growing a company: its culture. He calls his cultural principles the 5C Cultural Framework. Based on strong core values, character, competence, communication skills, and community building attributes, this concept has allowed him to attract and retain a strong team. This 5C team built, among other companies, AmREIT, which they dubbed the Irreplaceable Corner Company. AmREIT was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and grew to over $1 billion in assets. In 2015, when it was at the top of the market, Blackstone-backed Edens Investment Trust bought AmREIT at what is believed to be the highest returns for shareholders of a NYSE listed REIT in history—over 30% per annum from time of listing to sale. Today, Rowland Taylor’s portfolio of Irreplaceable companies and affiliates include Rowland Taylor, Fifth Corner (Real Estate), Rowland Taylor Vineyards (Agribusiness), and Pathways for Little Feet (Children). Each company’s focus remains the same: Investing in the irreplaceable.
Our Guiding Values
We are an organization of leaders.
We believe a great, sustainable organization begins with “5C” leadership, and that every person within our organization is called to learn and teach these values in themselves and others. We believe leaders lift not only their values and vision, but others as well. We believe, above all, that we should cultivate our leadership potential for the glory of God.
Our values are reflected in our “5C Leadership Framework.” These are, in order of priority:
Our Vineyard Story
Our founder, Kerr Taylor, grew up in the fertile Shenandoah River Valley of Virginia. His father was a Presbyterian pastor, and after church the family would often be invited to have lunch with parishioners at their beautiful working farms. After the meal, the children would explore the barns, hills, and fishing streams of these world class estates.
As a young boy, Kerr began to dream of someday owning a farm of his own.
When he was in high school, he moved with his family to Texas, where he began to fall in love with what he soon came to believe is the best place in the world to live, work, and play.
Even then, the idea of owning a beautiful working farm was never far from his imagination.
Over the years, Kerr built a series of successful entrepreneurial enterprises around the concept of “investing in the irreplaceable.™” These have included a New York Stock Exchange Company, and joint ventures with companies like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, and AEW. He also founded a charity for orphans, a hedge fund, and numerous private real estate partnerships.
But he never abandoned the idea of owning a sustainable working farm, and before long he was dreaming of building Texas vineyards that would meet the standard of investing in the irreplaceable.
A decade ago, that dream began to be realized.
Today, Rowland Taylor Vineyards has combined its heritage of success with the best soils, science, and team to build vineyards producing the highest quality fruit. One of the ways we do this is by using clones of classic French vineyards. Further, a large majority of our vines have been authenticated by the French Institute of Viticulture via the world class Entav-Inra certification, guaranteeing the clones are from famous French vineyards and are exact genetic copies.
Today, the dream has come true. Let us share it with you!
Our Team
Our 5-C staff are some of the most hard-working and dedicated people we know. Across their various disciplines, they bring focus and expertise to our ultimate goal of cultivating and distributing the finest grapes possible.
