In a move showing the value placed on prestigious, artisanal brands in the wine market, Jackson Family Wines is buying Copain Wines, a small and well-regarded winery in Healdsburg. The companies announced the deal Monday.

Santa Rosa’s Jackson Family Wines, the maker of Kendall-Jackson, owns more than 50 wineries around the world, from California and Oregon to Australia and South Africa. Founded in 1982 by Jess Jackson, it remains owned by the Jackson family and is managed by Jess’ widow, Barbara Banke. Jackson Family produces about 5.6 million cases of wine per year, according to Wine Business Monthly, and it has about 1,700 employees, putting it in the top 10 wine companies in the world. With the Copain buy, Jackson Family continues to stake a major claim in high-end Pinot Noir, barely a month after acquiring Oregon winery Penner-Ash.

Copain winemaker Wells Guthrie, who co-founded the business in 1999 with San Francisco holding company Murano Group, will become a Jackson Family employee and continue to make wine under the Copain name. Under the terms of the deal, Jackson Family will take over Copain’s leases on its Healdsburg winery and three vineyards in Anderson Valley.

The price for Copain, which produces approximately 20,000 cases of wine a year, was not disclosed. Last month, Constellation Brands paid $285 million for Prisoner Wine Co. in a brand-only deal; Prisoner produces 170,000 cases a year. In January, Crimson Wine Group paid $5.75 million for Washington’s Seven Hills Winery, which produces 25,000 cases a year. Prices vary widely in the wine business based on location, product type and whether the deal includes assets like wineries and vineyards.

For Jackson, Copain’s value is less in the cases than the cachet.

“Not only does Copain complement our portfolio, but it also elevates it,” Jackson Family Wines President Hugh Reimers said. “It’s stylistically very different from a lot of our wines. Wells is definitely making wine in that (In Pursuit of Balance) style, lower in alcohol.” In Pursuit of Balance is a nonprofit association of wineries, of which Copain is a member. The group espouses higher-acid, lower-alcohol wines.

Guthrie started Copain after stints as a tasting coordinator with Wine Spectator magazine and as an intern with Rhone vintner Michel Chapoutier. The brand’s focus is on Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah from Mendocino County’s Anderson Valley and Yorkville Highlands areas. Although Copain does brisk business in its Healdsburg tasting room and with a successful mailing list, its value-priced Tous Ensemble wines have become fixtures on restaurant by-the-glass lists, especially in California.

If its recent buying spree is any indication, Jackson Family, which built its reputation on brands like Kendall-Jackson and La Crema, appears to be betting big on boutique Pinot Noir brands heavy in single-vineyard bottlings. Copain, Penner-Ash and Siduri, which joined the Jackson Family portfolio last year, all fall into this category — and represent a significant departure from the La Crema set in price, style and target audience. Copain’s single-vineyard Pinots top out at $75 a bottle.

What can Jackson Family bring to these artisanal brands? Money, for one thing. “We don’t have the financial constraints that these small producers have,” Reimers points out. And Jackson can use its in-house distribution muscle to get these wines into new markets.

Crucially, too, Jackson also brings more than 18,000 acres of vineyards across California — with considerable holdings in Anderson Valley, where Copain gets most of its grapes. This may have proved especially desirable because, though founded on vineyard-designated bottlings — wines sourced from a single vineyard, aimed at expressing the particular characteristics of that site — Copain and Siduri owned no vineyards of their own; Penner-Ash had just 15 acres. All or most of their fruit was purchased through contracts with growers.

“We certainly have been focused on acquisitions of strong luxury Pinot Noir as a business,” Reimers says. “As fruit has become harder to get, a lot of these folks haven’t been able to find the fruit they need at the quality they need. And we have amazing estate vineyards.”

In turn, Copain can provide Jackson Family entree into the In Pursuit of Balance world to which Reimers alludes, wines popular with younger drinkers. “The most important thing is to maintain winemaking style,” Reimers says. “Wells is coming on with the acquisition, and we’d love him to make the wines for as long as he’ll stick around. He’s really the heart and soul of that winery.”

Reimers says his company would like to grow Copain’s output, but emphasizes that the more important measure of growth to them is revenue, not volume. “We’re talking about how we’d like to grow in the right distribution channels — restaurants and high-end retail.”

Don’t be surprised if you see more high-end brands jumping over to Jackson Family. “There’s a lot of people coming to us, and I think it’s because a lot of people respect us out there,” Reimers notes. “When we buy brands, we stay true to what they have been over the years, and we respect what they’ve been doing. The story needs to maintain consistency even though it’s changed ownership.”

Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicle’s wine, beer and spirits writer. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley Instagram: @esthermob