While everyone knows Napa and Sonoma as the big California wine region up in the North, Livermore has actually been quietly existing as powerhouse wine destination for just as long, if not longer. Contrary to popular belief of the Judgment of Paris in 1976, California actually won its first wine competition in France with a Livermore wine in the 1889 Paris Exhibition. That being said, we never really found a reason to drive in the opposite direction from where we were located, but luckily, the power of Instagram pointed us the right way into discovering a Livermore gem that was much more than just “pretty good.”
We met Craig Ploof, assistant winemaker for Steven Kent Winery through the grapevine of connections and winemakers on instagram, and were instantly attracted to his personality and his love and passion for good wine. After trying one of the Steven Kent flagships Lineage offsite, we decided that we had to visit, because clearly there was some magic happening in Livermore.
Steven Kent was founded in 1996 by Steven Kent Mirassou (fifth-generation winemaker from the Mirassou winemaking family) with the focus of making the best Bordeaux-style wines that rivaled the best in the world. With soils that resembled that of the left bank in Bordeaux, and a region that was already miles ahead of cultivating Bordeaux varieties compared to the neighbors of Napa, the foundations were perfect for Steven to set the standard of what fine Livermore wine would be today. Continue reading “Steven Kent Winery”