LIVERMORE WINE IS MIGHTY FINE!

The H.E.A.D. Society’s latest adventure explored the Livermore Valley’s wine history. Many people think of the Napa Valley when talking about California’s wine heritage but Livermore has quite a story to tell too. Spanish missionaries from nearby Mission San Jose planted the first vines in the valley during the 1760s. The area’s soil and climate, warm days and cool nights, attracted pioneer vintners beginning in the 1840s.

Forty years later, the valley entered a new era of wine making when Wente, Concannon and Cresta Blanca all got their start. It was Livermore, not the Napa Valley, that brought California wine to the world’s attention. In the 1880s, French wine dominated the American (and California) market. The best restaurants in San Francisco featured French imports on their wine lists. Some even labeled local vintages as “French” to help them sell.

Journalist Charles Wetmore was a big fan of California, especially Livermore, wines. He championed local

wine in dozens of newspaper articles and talked about the virtues of drinking locally at every occasion. Perhaps he was one of the first wine locavores (or as Liz says, “locaholics”). When the state legislature decided to create a Viticultural Commission, Wetmore was picked as the first chairman.

Wetmore brought cuttings of Semillion, Sauvignon Blanc, Muscadelle and Cabernet Sauvignon back from France and used them to start his own winery in the Livermore Valley, Cresta Blanca. In 1889, his efforts paid off when two of his wines were awarded gold medals at the Paris International Exposition. His wine beat France’s best and put California on the world’s wine map.

On a recent bright Saturday morning, eleven H.E.A.D. trippers (including 3 new members) loaded into our chariot (actually a Hummer stretch limo) and headed east over the golden hills. Our first stop was the Wente Vineyards’ tasting room on Tesla Road. There’s no better place to start a Livermore wine exploration. Wente is the oldest continuously operating family-owned winery in the United States. It was founded in 1883 by German immigrant C. H. Wente. After Wente arrived in the Golden State, he worked for Charles Krug in Napa before settling in Livermore. Wente brought Chardonnay grapes to California in 1912 and was first to bottle Sauvignon Blanc as a distinct variety. During Prohibition, the winery stayed in business by making sacramental wine (lots and lots of sacramental wine).

The tasting room is on the original 1883 property so we were awash in both history and wine. Thanks to Harald and Jeneva, who are Wente Wine Club members, we were ushered into the exclusive Nth Degree Lounge. In a beautiful outdoor setting our tasting began in earnest. No, I’m not counting the champagne in the limo. We were totally pampered as we worked our way through the “enhanced” flight. I’ve got to say, they’re not stingy with pours in the lounge.

Our next stop was right across the courtyard at Tamas Estates. This winery specializes in Italian-style wines. These fruit forward varieties were real crowd pleasers. Between all of us we ended up sharing three different flights; bright whites, fruity reds and a port that knocked some socks off. Has anybody seen my socks?

By now we needed some lunch. Our driver maneuvered our boat of a limo into downtown Livermore (no small feat) and soon we were all seated at the First Street Alehouse. The Alehouse opened in 2000 and firmly planted the craft beer flag in the heart of this wine town. Liz and I shared a burger and a pint of Altimont Brewery’s Left Coast Session Ale.

Full of burgers, brew and fries, we piled back into the limo and soon poured out into the Mitchell Katz tasting room. Interesting reds, oaky Chardonnay and some barrel samples of Sangiovese finished off our tasting but not our adventure.

After wine where better to stop than Loard’s Ice Cream? The first Loard’s opened in 1950 in Oakland and

now this family-owned candy and ice cream parlor has branches across the East Bay. The limo carried us back to downtown for a cone before the drive back to Newark. I’ve got to say, our driver from Ambassador Limousines was great!

Livermore has 4,000 acres of wine grapes planted and 50+ wineries to explore. I’m sure we’ll H.E.A.D. back there again.

My Turn!

Ok, Ira says that as co-Grand PooBahs, his role is play-by-play and mine is color. In other words, he’s

                        The Pat Summerall and I’m the John Madden. He’s the Kuip, I’m the Kruk. He’s Laurel, I’m Hardy. This is really starting to circle the drain…anyway, I’m adding my several cents worth now…We had a blast! Of course, I may be biased because I LOVE white and sparkly wines and we started out with both in the limo. It was a pretty crappy wine, but, hey - it was white and sparkly so I sucked it down. The cool beans was that some people don’t share my delight in crappy fake champagne (Ira) so I got his, too!

Wente was awesome and not just because Harald and Jeneva got us VIP treatment. I finished off several of Ira’s tastes of the white wines and they gave us a really good sparkly! I glossed over the reds (Don’t get me wrong; I tasted them, but I didn’t have as much fun - it kind of seemed like work, a little). Then they gave us a taste of Orange Moscato which nearly caused me to have a peak physical experience…in fact, if there had been dark chocolate accompanying it, I might have embarrassed myself and gotten us all banned from the premises. Long story short – it was goooooood!

Tamas was great because the wine was delish AND they let us (actually, encouraged us) to share flights! Once we got to the reds I wandered off and found a cocktail napkin in the little store area that said “pick me, squeeze me, stomp me, make me wine” Didn’t like it enough to buy the napkins, but I did take a picture of it. Then I went outside and sat in the sun. One of our new members was out there, too, and I think he was asleep. Next stop – lunch and, although I’ve essentially given up meat, burgers sounded good mostly because they come with fries, (which I love but am not allowed to eat with the regularity I’d like. So I take

 opportunities like sitting next to someone who loves me and has fries on their plate to indulge a little.  This is one of the reasons I love to sit next to my 8 year old faux grandson when we go out to dinner. He always gets fries and he loses interest in his food early in the game so, Score: me. This won’t last into his teen years, but then I’ll be able to play the crazy old lady card…)

Anyway, we got into the Great White Whale and proceeded to our final winery where I tasted nothing, but it was pretty there.

For some reason, ice cream made sense to our group. Yelp led us to Loards. They have good ice cream which they proudly proclaim is fully butterfatty. I heard that statins are our friends and I take them every day, so I got butter brickle. It was goooood…We all crammed into a corner booth and even talked a cute little kid into posing with us, You know, for cred (btw, If anybody asks, my name is Miss Pam…).

Back in the boat and over the hill to H.E.A.D.quarters. We offered everybody a room to rest up if anybody felt the need, but I was the only one who did. The next planned H.E.A.D. Trip is December 14 for SantaCon in San Francisco. We might get a H.E.A.D. Rush together for November, but nothing is carved in stone yet. SantaCon is, though, so start getting your Santa suits together, and mark your calendars – in ink, people, this is a fun one!