Long-established families and new winemakers aim to raise Livermore's profile in the wine world.
By Virginie Boone
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Tuesday, 08 March 2011 |
09:50
Off the Beaten Track WinesAn ongoing series on California's lesser-known wine regions.
The Livermore Valley, a wine appellation southeast of San Francisco, part of California's Coastal Range, has been producing wine since the late 1840s, making it one of the state's oldest wine regions.
But old can sometimes be a liability for a region trying to break out on its own in new ways, and ambitious producers can find it a challenge at times to get consumers to pay attention and notice their wines.
This may be changing. Smaller brands like Steven Kent, Occasio, Page Mill and others are releasing excitingly lush chardonnay, merlot, petit verdot, syrah and cabernet sauvignon that are very much worth knowing, honing in on vineyard sites, clonal selections, cellar practices and their own ideologies to better show the world what the Livermore Valley can do.
The Livermore Valley has long been a fertile agricultural spot, its east-west running valley good at channeling cooling coastal winds, luring in fog from the Pacific Ocean in the morning, warming up plenty during the day, then cooling off again at night.
The viticultural conditions seem to suit certain varieties just right. The valley has done very well over time with petite syrah, cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel, merlot, sauvignon blanc and chardonnay, among many others, all of which enjoy the valley's diversity of well-drained soils.
Though there are more and more small producers making a name for themselves, Livermore's history is intrinsically tied to two family wineries, Wente and Concannon, both of which continue to produce great wines at great prices.
Carl Wente originally worked for Charles Krug in the Napa Valley in the late 1800s before making his way to Livermore, where his heirs continue to be a formidable presence.
Winemaker Karl Wente is the fifth generation to take the helm here and he's stepping things up in terms of both wine quality and buzz, getting new recognition for a very large brand also associated with the famous Wente clone of chardonnay spread throughout California, the local golf course and the winery's annual summer music concert series.
Wente remains among the best large-scale producer of wines here making a range of affordable to high-end offerings all at very fair prices. Wente also makes Murrieta's Well, a line of estate blends, both red and white.
James Concannon, an Irish native living in San Francisco, came to Livermore around the same time. Concannon, too, remains an important producer in Livermore, especially known for its petite syrah and cabernet sauvignon bottlings. Its Conservancy Petite Sirah is a particular standout, a real nod to the winery's longstanding love affair and expertise with this grape.
Still, the energy going forward in Livermore relies on the smaller producers who are trying new things and gaining new followers open to tasting Livermore in an entirely new way. Get a good taste of the new through these offerings:
Occasio owner/winemaker John Kinney is all about, as he puts it, "the fleeting nature of opportunity." And the Livermore Valley to him seemed nothing if not full of opportunity. Since building a winery here in 2007, he's been making tremendous, small-production, extremely estate-driven Livermore Valley wines, from a Del Arroyo Vineyard Pinot Gris and Petite Sirah to Sotto Voce, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Zinfandel also from Del Arroyo, a relatively higher-elevation vineyard with noticeable acidity and structure; 2008 is the current vintage ($30).
Page Mill's owner and winemaker, Dane Stark, actually moved his business from the Santa Cruz Mountains to the Livermore Valley in 2005, in search of great grapes and more space to make his wines. One of his Livermore standouts is a sauvignon blanc from Ghielmetti Vineyard, an increasingly visible vineyard designate in both sauvignon blanc and cabernet sauvignon. Page Mill also stands out with Tazetta Vineyard Livermore Valley Syrah, a dark purple red syrah with great fruity blackberry, tart cherry and dark plum nose, medium-bodied with deep concentration and a nice finish cradled in cardamom and earthy bacon.
Steven Kent Mirassou came to Livermore in the late 1990s, doubling down on the region and his vision of what he could do here with cabernet sauvignon. The culmination of this vision is Lineage, a proprietary Bordeaux-blend sourced entirely from estate-grown Livermore grapes that Mirassou hopes will stand up proudly next to the best cabs in the world. Released for the first time in late 2010 (2007 vintage; $125), the wine is exquisitely tuned, full of dark cassis and cherry but plenty of herbal cabernet franc, too, the beginning of a beautiful friendship for sure.
Virginie Boone is a Sonoma Valley-based wine writer. She has reported on the Northern California wine scene for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat and its affiliate food and wine magazine, Savor.
