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Livermore Valley sits just under 50 miles (80 km) east of downtown San Francisco. This modest valley, oriented east-west, was one of California’s most historic winegrowing areas but is today much less visible thanks to the long shadows cast by better-known Napa and Sonoma. Around 1885, however, Livermore would have likely been the wine country destination of choice for wealthy San Franciscans looking to pay a visit to a vineyard and purchase some wine, with its dozens of wineries and thousands of acres of wine grapes.
Livermore has only recently surpassed its vineyard acreage at the height of its 19th-century fame, but its roughly 50 local wineries are trying hard to remind people that 80% of the state’s Cabernet Sauvignon and 75% of its Chardonnay owes its existence to the history and quality of Livermore Valley wine. Read on.
It had been some time since I took a close look at the wines of the region, so earlier this month, I headed over the hills and spent the day exploring and tasting.
Livermore gets lucky
Luck has figured prominently in the history of Livermore. Certainly, Robert Livermore, the English sailor who jumped ship in Monterey and found his way up to the valley that would later bear his name, counted himself lucky. He managed to befriend the regional governor in that part of Alta California (still a part of Mexico at that point) and in 1844 talked his way into a 48,000-acre (19,000-ha) land grant which he would go on to richly exploit, building a hotel and a number of other businesses (as well as planting grapevines), just in time for the arrival of an endless influx of customers, courtesy of the gold rush. Livermore died in 1858, but at that point had quite literally planted the seeds (and the name) for the town that would go on to be incorporated in 1869.
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