California Wines & Wineries

A Unique Idea – Livermore Valley Vintners’ Collective

Posted on March 15, 2020 Updated on March 15, 2020

Livermore Valley Vintners’ Collective is a group of winemakers in Livermore who are taking on a new challenge. The idea is to make a wine from each winemakers’ perspective using local grapes with pre-assigned percentages to show case the winemakers’ quality and artistry. The group was open to all Livermore wine producers using Livermore Valley grapes. Six winemakers joined this initial launch and the LVVC group is anticipating many more to join.

The parameters of wine were fairly simple:

The Base: 100% Livermore Valley fruit. No more than 50% new oak is to be used and no adjuncts may be added.
Production Guidelines: Primary varietals were selected and percentages. They were: 30-40% Merlot, 30-40% Syrah, <25% Cabernet Sauvignon, <25% Malbec,<25% Petite Sirah,<25% Zinfandel, <5% Winemaker’s Choice (any varietal).
Getting a Taste: The final wines will have a minimum of 6 months of bottle aging and all participating wineries would release at the same time. The first release being 3/13-15 and one weekend monthly until the wine is all sold out. The wine comes in the wooden case with six bottles, with one bottle per winery.

Each of the six LVVC wines were entered in the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition in January 2020 with varying results. The wines received 2 Bronze, 2 Silver, 1 Gold and 1 Double Gold for their inaugural release. The wineries  who participated initially are 3 Steves, Fenestra, John Evan Cellars, Las Positas Vineyard, Page Mill Winery and Wood Family Vineyards.

I attended the LVVC Inaugural Release Party on Thursday, March 12th as part of the media coverage. This was held at Las Positas Winery with each winery pouring and many delicious appetizers served to compliment the wines. Having tasted all the wines, each were of substantial quality and showed excellent artisan skills. All the wines were on a “grade scale” of either an A or B level. The wines were “mellow and smooth” and very drinkable.  Only one had little “edge” due to their percentage mix and all will mellow in time.

Here are wines and their percentage mix which is located on the back of each bottle.

So stop by any of the six wineries and pick up a “six bottle case” and you can be the judge as to which winemaker did the best job in expressing their wine.

Slainte,

Michael
https://californiawinesandwineries.com

http://3steveswinery.com/

https://fenestrawinery.com/

http://bigwhitehouse.com/   (John Evan Winery)

https://www.laspositasvineyards.com/

https://www.pagemillwinery.com/

https://woodfamilyvineyards.com/