Full Belly Files | Wente Vineyards’ Welcoming Weekend

This edition of Full Belly Files was originally emailed to subscribers on September 22, 2023. To receive Matt Kettmann’s food newsletter in your inbox each Friday, sign up at independent.com/newsletters.

I wasn’t exactly fired up last Friday to spend my morning driving five-plus hours north to Livermore, where I’d accepted an invitation many months earlier to attend a dinner celebrating the 140th anniversary of Wente Vineyards.

As you may have noticed from past Full Belly Files, I’ve been on the road for much of 2023, including the latest streak of being out of town for at least one night every weekend since early July. This particular work trip felt like overload, especially since my coverage of Wente’s wines for Wine Enthusiast only includes a few bottlings from their 1,000-acre Monterey County ranch each year, with another colleague handling the bulk of their wines that are grown across their 2,000 acres in Livermore.

The Tri-Valley city, which lies east of the East Bay and just before the Altamont Pass drops into the Central Valley, is much farther than I typically travel for wine dinners. And as a San Jose native, I mostly remember Livermore being a bit of a whipping post for those of us from more developed Bay Area regions, one of those supposedly dusty, hot places that people complained about when their club soccer or all-star baseball team had to travel to out-of-town tournaments.

But earlier this year, the historic winery decided to change the appellation of their larger bottlings from the Livermore Valley AVA to the broader Central Coast AVA. That puts many more of their wines under my Wine Enthusiast watch, so I suddenly had more reasons to justify a visit. Though it seems like a stretch, Livermore is technically in the Central Coast appellation, in part because the Wente family helped craft that massive Bay Area–to–Santa Barbara AVA back in 1985.

Putting “Central Coast” on their labels allows a bit more flexibility — they can, for instance, wrap some richer Livermore chardonnay into their bottlings to complement the racier Monterey stuff. More strategically, it’s a wise marketing move, in that “Central Coast” is a much better-known — and, I’d say, more widely respected — appellation than Livermore.  

As readers of this column know, I’m a big fan of California history, wine and otherwise, so I was naturally curious to meet the family, hear more of their story, and enjoy their hospitality, which included a nice hotel room at The Rose in nearby Pleasanton, golf at their estate course on Saturday, and the fancy al fresco dinner that evening.  What I didn’t expect to find was a highly engaged, multigenerational family operation, offering estate-grown wines at prices that most wine-loving Californians can afford — oh, and to stumble into one of the best restaurants I’ve eaten at all year.

Upon arriving in Livermore on Friday — which took less than five hours, actually — my schedule included a tasting and facility tour with director of winemaking Elizabeth Kester_, who’s been with the winery for 13 years. Safety is paramount around these parts, I learned while sporting my own bright green vest, and so is sustainability, as the winery is employing and enabling a wide range of eco-minded, water-saving technologies.

In addition to the Central Coast appellation news, she shared with me their first Central Coast red blend, an as-yet-unnamed cuvée of four Bordelaise varieties plus tempranillo. Dry as a bone, unlike many of the sweet-leaning red blends on grocery store shelves, the blend is the first new wine to be added to Wente’s main portfolio in a decade.

Wente’s 140th anniversary sparkling wine and Aly Wente with her namesake pinot noir | Credit: Matt Kettmann

Then I headed to the hospitality center, the refurbished site of Cresta Blanca Winery that was founded in 1882. Over sips of rosé named after her sister, Niki, and pinot named after herself, Aly Wente discussed the arc of her family’s company, which is now run by the fifth generation.

Officially in charge of marketing and hospitality, Aly is focused on the future, which seems bright. Given that they are truly a family-run brand who grow and handle their own fruit with a firm eye on sustainability and then sell much of that wine between $15 and $20, the Wentes click many of the boxes that all sorts of demographics desire.

That night I met my cousin Jeff, who lives in Livermore, and we went to a restaurant that he thought was good called Range Life. One look at the menu — summer peppers stuffed with cured pork neck and aged sheep’s milk cheese; Fort Bragg albacore with huitlacoche and chicken skin; Anderson Ranch lamb leg with butter beans, eggplant confit, grapes, and zhug — and I realized we’d entered an eatery of elevated intent.

We ordered all of those dishes, plus lobster mushroom and peach on toast with stracciatella cheese; heirloom tomato and nectarine with bottarga and pepperoncini; and halibut crudo with basil, chili, and “full belly” Haogen melon. (I truly just noticed the “full belly” part while writing this paragraph.) With a couple of creative cocktails and some zesty Livermore cab franc by Steven Kent, Range Life delivered one of my most epic meals of the year.

I started Saturday with chilaquiles verdes and micheladas at the Downtown Café in Pleasanton, then made my way back to the Wente hub, where my other cousin Casey joined me at the last minute for golf on their estate course. With well-irrigated holes weaving through the vineyards and scaling mountains to provide vine-to-sky views, The Course at Wente Vineyards was another surprise treat. I thought I’d be sweating to death, but instead I was knocking down (occasional) pars on expertly tended links.  

That evening was the main event: the 140th dinner celebration, where Aly popped anniversary bubbles in front of her whole family, including Uncle Phil, whom I interviewed for this recent article on heritage grape clones, and Cousin Karl, whom I hung out with for this article on Monterey’s Arroyo Seco region years ago. My own cousin Adam and his soccer-stud wife Aly, whom you may know from my coaching memoir, joined us as well. (On top of all else, catching up with three cousins in two days isn’t bad for family time.)

I was seated next to Carolyn Wente, who’s credited with bringing her family from merely respected producers into major players in the modern wine scene, responsible for the hospitality center, golf course, and much more. Carolyn was a hoot — she even wore my cowboy hat for a bit — and just the latest sign that this legacy family is only more energized than ever to make it through the ages.

To all those Wentes and the ones I’ve yet to meet, here’s a well-earned “cheers” to 140 years! And, yes, I’ll be back.

 

L.A. Getaway, Again

One reason I was still exhausted by the time I had to go to Livermore was because I’d gone down the previous Sunday before to watch Inter Miami CF — and their new superstar Lionel Messi, arguably one of the most famous men on the planet right now — take on the LAFC at BMO Stadium in downtown Los Angeles.

My buddy Señor M. had scored free tickets — they were otherwise hovering around $750 a pop — so I got us a moderately priced, hipsterized hotel room at The Wayfarer DTLA, centrally located amid much of the current downtown excitement. We started our adventure with some gin drinks and French fries at The Rooftop, where the views look west toward the stadiums and sunsets, and talked about the hotel’s multi-course brunch menu, the gaming business, and North Carolina cannabis opportunities with the two women seated next to us.

Having trouble getting an Uber on the way to the stadium, we found ourselves in front of Caña Rum Bar, where the midday bouncer said I’d get a free shot since my birthday was coming up. That was true, and we pledged to return after the game, when things got hotter inside the dark space.

The first of many street meats on the way to watch Lionel Messi, where Messi fans may have outnumbered LAFC fans | Credit: Matt Kettmann

Fast-forward through more drinks, some bacon-wrapped hot dogs, and the most exciting soccer game I’ve ever personally attended, and we were back at Caña, where the beats were thumping and the crowd was chest-to-chest. It got late quick.

Midday mojito at Caña Rum Bar and fried pork chops at Uncle John’s | Credit: Matt Kettmann, Señor M.

The following morning demanded quick eats, so we walked around the corner to Uncle John’s, thanks to a suggestion from The Wayfarer’s valet. Señor M. went for fried pork chops, billed as the hangover helper, and I went for pho, and we both left the place feeling better about the drive back to Santa Barbara.

When I finally made it back home on Labor Day, I rolled right from my truck into my wife’s car to head down to Goleta Beach, where I’d pledged to griddle up hot links, hot dogs, and other tubemeats for my birthday party. By the time my actual birthday showed up on Wednesday, I was back to full-speed work, writing last week’s newsletter and preparing for Livermore.

Next week, I head to St. Augustine, Florida, for another cousin’s wedding, my fourth of the past 10 months. I’ll try to file a Full Belly Files before I leave, but don’t blame me if I take the week off. Expect some Floridian intel when I return.

From Our Table

Here are some of my food and drink stories you may have missed:

• I’ve said it here before, but Allan Hancock College produces some of the best wine for the price. Here’s a story about their program, which is participating in Santa Barbara County Farm Day on September 23 and in the Vintners Festival on October 14.  

• I guess you can only see this if you have Apple News right now, but here is my detailed feature on the vintners of San Benito County for Wine Enthusiast magazine.