CA’s Livermore: McGrail, Murrieta’s Well, Steven Kent

Napa may be California’s most famous and best known wine region, but California’s commercial wine industry actually began elsewhere– in warm interior valleys like Cucamonga east of Los Angeles and Livermore east of Oakland in Alameda County. While the padres first planted grapes in the 1760s to make sacramental wine using the labor of enslaved native Americans, immigrants settling in California planted vines first for their own use, and then for commercial use. Robert Livermore in Livermore Valley led the way in the 1840s followed by pioneering winemakers like C. H. Wente, James Concannon, and Charles Wetmore who founded their wineries in the early 1880s.

Livermore Valley’s rare Continue reading →