(Fortune) - Barbara Banke took over at Jackson Family Wines in 2011. Now she’s preparing for a global wine shortage.

Barbara Banke
Age: 61
Title: Chairman and proprietor, Jackson Family Wines
Background: Before JFW, ran a law practice specializing in land-use cases
Belief: “We are on the cusp of a major wine shortage, thanks primarily to growing demand from Asia.”

Barbara Banke’s first date with famed California winemaker Jess Jackson back in 1984 was a hot one. Scorching, in fact. Jackson was running a little late. Juggling a busy San Francisco legal practice with the Sonoma County winery he’d just founded was proving challenging. Today Jackson Family Wines produces the top-selling wine in the U.S.—Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay. But back then Jackson was just another rich guy from the city who thought it would be fun to own a vineyard, and the varietal he was bottling, chardonnay, was a bit player in the U.S. wine market.

With Jackson stuck in a meeting, Banke, Jackson’s law partner at the time, drove over to his San Francisco condominium to get a headstart on dinner. “I was going to make chicken piccata,” recalls Banke. “I had this pan with oil on the stove. I thought the stove was off, but it wasn’t. It was on high.” When Banke returned to the kitchen, the stovetop was ablaze and the condo was filling with smoke. Understandably, Banke was a little nervous when Jackson finally arrived on the scene, just as firefighters were finishing up. “Well,” Jackson announced, “I guess we’re going out to dinner.”