Darcie Kent Winery

Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit Darcie Kent winery, owned and operated by Amanda (our lovely TA’s) family. The winery was established in 1996 and is located in Livermore Valley, east of the San Francisco Bay. Darcie Kent, along with Hungarian-born winemaker Julian Halasz work together to handcraft small lot, single vineyard wines. They’ve had some tremendous success with their direct to consumer sales but have also expanded to numerous restaurants nationwide. When I was studying at Harvard Kennedy School in the fall, some GSB friends and I treated ourselves to a fancy dinner at Russell House Tavern and saw Darcie Kent Gruner Veltiner featured and immediately knew we had to order the bottle.  (And texted Amanda a picture of course!)

The family has a rich history of winemaking. The Alpine Winery was started by Darcie Kent’s great grandfather which lasted from 1883 to 1945 – it closed due to hard times following the repeal of prohibition. Darcie Kent carries on the tradition as a fifth generation vintner and artist for the winery by continuing the legacy of using original art on the wine labels. In 2013, the family purchased the Estate Winery and Vineyard and hosted our group in their lovely tasting room with gorgeous artwork from Darcie Kent, purple accents, and a lovely view of green rolling hills.

Our tasting list:

2014 Hoffman Chardonnay  -- notes of vanilla, pineapple, and green apple

2013 Old Vines Merlot – notes of blackberry and pepper

2014 Stone Patch Cabernet Franc – notes of blueberry and fig

2013 Choreography Red Wine – delicious blend of cabernet franc and merlot

2013 Clone 337 Cabernet Sauvignon – cherry and chocolate

The highlights of the tasting for me were the Chorography and the Clone 337, but I was surprised by how much I loved the Chardonnay (I generally am very loyal to my reds.) I also enjoyed getting to hear some hilarious stories about the wines – ask Amanda about her first job at the winery, and seeing the joy and pride the family clearly has in this incredible winery they’ve built.

Some other interesting things I’ve learned:

-As Napa’s temperatures rise due to global warming, Livermore is actually experiencing low temperatures which is better for grape growing

-Sometimes wineries will cut fruit off the vines so that the fruit will ripen and be more concentrated which can be better and give more complexity to the wine

-Clone refers to a cutting or bud of a “mother” plant or vine and then is planted, making it genetically identical to the first.

-When you  plant new wines, it can take at least 6 to 8 years before the fruit can be harvested for wine.

Amanda Kent dropping wine knowledge. 

 Our flight!

 The crew.