The Livermore Valley is situated right there in Northern California, easy day trip from the Bay Area, over two dozen wineries.
However, I seldom read about it. A search on this forum turns up only a smattering of references.
Has anybody been recently, or tried these wines recently? Wondering if there is any “there“ there.
Steven Kent is making great Cab Franc and Cab Sauv. Brad Kurtz has his newer family project Vine Farm Ridge with real cool blends and vineyard sources in Livermore, they just replanted their family vineyard also in a really unique style. It’s a great new project. During the day he’s the viticulturist for Gloria Ferrer. I think those are the 2 who are currently doing the best work in Livermore. Brad doesn’t have a tasting room but you might be able to catch up with him to do a tasting.
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Wente might be a place to consider. Supposedly they have some kind of summer concert program too.
It’s a nice area to visit if you just want relaxed visits with probably modest cost and no hassle. You’ll find some pretty good and interesting wines around and some nice spots to hang out.
But if you’re looking for kind of elite wines or have very high expectations, it’s not the place for that.
Retzlaff is another one to consider. Wente is a good bigger winery choice.
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First thought…Kalin Cellars…but they don’t exist anymore. Next best thing…
Darcie Kent is a really chill and laid back property. Their wines are quite nice and reasonably priced.
Seconding Darcie Kent, I was a fan of their Chard and PN
I’m old enough to remember when Concannon produced a great petite sirah there.
But I’m dating myself… again.
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You’ll have to scroll down a bit, but a good friend has been a bunch and is there now as a judge.
is her substack with a decent list of Livermore recs. Her perspective is less of a Berserkers perspective, but she always does a good job putting things like this together.
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The Wente Chardonnay drank on the patio after playing their course on a 100 degree day in August seemed delicious. YMMV.
The course is nice but there is a lot of elevation gain between holes. I think power carts are mandatory.
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This is great stuff. Thanks.
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Almost Famous is a cool tasting room with a large variety of local wines. Added bonus is they have 1st class music in the adjoining room.
We’re heading there in August, DW does shopping at the outlets, then we go to dinner (Posada is excellent) then go to Almost Famous for some wine and the music.
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Kongsgaard, Aubert, Kistler, Marcassin, Peter Michael, etc. should tip their cap to Livermore, CA. Mother of the Wente Clone which is planted all over the place in Sonoma, Napa and Santa Barbara County. If it wasn’t 115 degrees there from July to October, it’d be a fantastic spot to grow world class wine grapes. Still very good wines out there in the LIV.
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115 degrees is a bit of an exaggeration, it’s still the Bay Area after all.
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Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle importations from Chateau D’Yquem and the popular clone 8 of Cabernet also. It get’s hot there but the winds and evening temps do a good job of cooling it down at night.
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I will put up Page Mill Winery with the caveats that it has been a few years and Dane Stark is a great guy. Murietas Well (is still in business) also made some nice wines back in the day.
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It was incredibly hot when my Mrs and I stayed there for a week in July 2012. Often over 100 degrees Fahrenheit according to the thermometer in our car. The grapes in the Wente Vineyards around the course had turned to raisins on the vines. Never 115 though.
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Here’s a map of Growing Degree Days for Livermore (from this report)
For reference, Growing Degree Days for Oakville in 2022 was 3844 (reference, page 7). Obviously, the growing years are not comparable, just trying to give a sense of scale.
I believe that most of the vineyards in Livermore are in the green or light green areas in the map, to the south and southwest of LLNL/Sandia.
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Very true. I’m no expert nor have any data to support, but it is so damn hot out there. The killer isn’t the day per se, but the nights are so much hotter than Napa/Sonoma. It gets hot early and stays hot at night out in the LIV. You look at temps in the morning and at night and they are 10+ degrees, sometimes 20 degrees hotter than Oakville. Example 85 at 9PM in LIV vs. 70 in Oakville. I look the temps on my phone from July to October out of jealously being we have a lot of friends/family in Napa/Sonoma and wish that marine influence would push out here for some relief 
Perhaps between the soil and weather, LIV hasn’t been coveted as world class fruit vs say Napa, Sonoma and Santa Barbara? They do make some solid wine. Someone mentioned upthread about Concannon petite syrah. Its the only LIV wine I’ve ever been like, “wow, this is very good”. Nonetheless, good wine out there!
I feel like the Livermore soil has always been pretty well regarded since the start. All that alluvial soil and gravel, people calling it the Graves of California. I think there’s still more potential to be tapped from the region. The people doing good work are making really nice wines but there is a lot of inconsistency and mediocre wine made there also. It seems like so much is sold straight out of the tasting rooms and the wines don’t always need to really compete in the market.
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