Home - Steven Kent Mirassou

Lineage: Life and Love and Six Generations in California Wine
by Steven Kent Mirassou
Hardcover – June 2021

Steven Kent Mirassou received his BA in American Literature from the George Washington University and his MA in Literature from NYU. He was born in the Salinas Valley and grew up in San Jose and Los Gatos before going east to college. Lineage: Life and Love and Six Generations in California Wine is his first book.

Mirassou started his wine career in sales but found his true passion after moving into the production side of the business in 1996. Steven has made the highest rated wines from the Livermore Valley, is a founder of the Mount Diablo Highlands Wine Quality Alliance, and the President of the Livermore Valley Wine Growers Association.

Steven has four adult children, April Coffey, Aidan Mirassou, Katherine Mirassou, and Sara Mirassou. He lives in Pleasanton, CA with his fiancée, Nancy Castro, and their three dogs.

Lineage: LIFE and Love and Six Generations in California Wine

by Steven Kent Mirassou (Author)
Hardcover – June 2021

THE LATEST

Cabernet Franc is the Future of the Livermore Valley

2021-07-20

Today begins an incredibly exciting journey as the vines were ordered for a thirteen-acre vineyard about two miles east of The Lineage Collection. Clones 214

Blending Season

2021-07-19

Blending wine is like trying to turn over, blindfolded, all the tumblers in a cage whose lock is constantly moving. The Lineage Collection winemaking team’s

Soil

2021-07-15

The first time I saw our former estate vineyard rolling up from the valley floor to the base of the Altamont hills, the late rays

The Origin of “Lineage”

2021-07-13

In this video, I talk about the origin of Lineage: Life and Love and Six Generations in California Wine. All thanks to Imaginem Productions for the

Connecting One to Fundamental Things

2021-07-10

“The food of the great chefs is a painstakingly thoughtful and radically imaginative distillation of centuries of technique and training upon which the empires of

Art and Wine: Revisiting Collector’s Circle Labels

2021-07-08

Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, one of the five First-Growths from the Left Bank of Bordeaux has worked with some

Does Your Wine Have W.A.F.T.?

2021-07-07

If your wine has W.A.F.T. then it is beautiful and delicious! There are a million different ways of evaluating wine – point totals, grades, puffs,

An Answering Call: Wine & Writing

2021-07-06

I was walking back to my wretched and wonderful apartment on West 10th Street in the West Village from classes on Washington Square in 1987

stevenkentmirassou

One of my favorite photos, taken by @rhettredeling

One of my favorite photos, taken by @rhettredelings. Printed on @cyanotype paper. One of the oldest methods of photography. #talkingwithhands #lineagetastingsalon #stevenkentmirassou #thelineagecollection

Blending wine is like trying to turn over, blindfo

Blending wine is like trying to turn over, blindfolded, all the tumblers in a cage whose lock is constantly moving. The Lineage Collection winemaking team's sole job is to free the shackled prisoner inside. She is Perfect Beauty. We always go into Blending Season with the confidence that she is there to be found and the experience to know that it will take work and patience to free her from her barrel-shaped prison. Winemaking runs, in large part, on the fuel of rational exuberance and joy. And we seeourselves as happily inevitable conscripts in a battle against mediocrity and the lack of enological imagination. The Livermore Valley is one of the finest places in the world to grow Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. We believe we have a moral responsibility to work toward a level of quality at least as great as that of our growing area. In my forthcoming book, I write a lot about tasting from barrels and putting blends together with my team. The everyday reality of finding the right barrels to include in a final blend - all the spitting and note-taking and sample-getting and triaging of samples is in service to the marshaling of disparate barrels, with their own senses of structure and flavor, into a seamless, coherent, emotional, and transcendent wine that will pay its dividend of Deliciousness for decades to come. @aidanjmirassou, @beth.refsnider, and I embarked today on the fitting of Cabernet Sauvignon barrels together for our finest representation of that grape: The Premier. 2019 was a fine vintage, and the first run-through of 26 barrels (we are looking for the best and most appropriate eight) yielded many gorgeous wines. We will spend the next several weeks kicking barrels out and re-introducing those same back into the blend until we have what we hope is a seamless and gorgeous wine. I'll report back on our efforts and spend some more time describing how our process works in a future post. Until then, drink emotional and drink well! #stevenkentmirassou #lineagebook #thelineagecollection #writer #bookstagram #winemaker

Three generations of the Mirassou family in 1979.

Three generations of the Mirassou family in 1979. (L to R, 4th to 6th) Norb, Steve, and Steven at the 125th Anniversary celebration of the family in the California wine business. Family never goes put of style…the same cannot be said of clothing! 🤭 #familywinemakers #lineagebook #stevenkentmirassou #wine #writing #winewriting #thelineagecollection

“The first time I saw our former estate vineyard

“The first time I saw our former estate vineyard rolling up from the valley floor to the base of the Altamont hills, the late rays of the summer afternoon were throwing shadows out long and epic on the loamy ground. I slowly drove my truck around the perimeter of the vineyard, radio off and windows down. In the lowering light, the gently waving rows of vines descended the hillside into a perfect point in the distance, and the flying bugs were reflected like transient embers. The vines were loaded with fruit,

bunches dancing in the breeze, trellis wires playing their metallic accompaniment. The breezes were coming in from San Francisco Bay as they did practically every day. They carried the tang of the sea on their backs and were chiefly responsible for the Livermore Valley’s viticultural pre-eminence. Perfectly preserved in my mind like the landscape in a child’s snow globe, I stopped at the top of the vineyard, turned off the engine, and climbed into the back of the truck. The warm wind bathed me as the sun was slowly eaten by the western hills; I was alone and there was life all around me, and the beauty of that ragged rectangle of vine was so full that it hurt.” Excerpt from Lineage: Life and Love and Six Generations in California Wine (link in bio) #lineagebook #stevenkentmirassou #thelineagecollection #writer #bookstsgram #winemaker

Book Launch is only 18 days away! In this video I

Book Launch is only 18 days away! In this video I talk about the origin story of “Lineage,” my first book. #stevenkentmirassou #lineagebook #writerandwinemaker #thelineagecollection #bookstagram #livermorevalleywinecountry #winewriter

"The food of the great chefs is a painstakingly th

"The food of the great chefs is a painstakingly thoughtful and radically imaginative distillation of centuries of technique and training upon which the empires of millennia-past forged the most enduring portion of their legacy. While these chefs, or at least the product of their intellect and emotion, spread as some comestible
diaspora, creating fortresses of culture for worlds new and original, it was the bottle of wine, hidden in the darkness of the cellar below, that most distinctly connected the food eaten to the one who ate the food.

The indescribable sexiness of great Cabernet Franc reaches its apotheosis when paired with the most gorgeously transformed lamb; the lamb, too, reaches levels of becoming way beyond the significant inputs of and entanglements with great wine only. The web and its individual strands, grand cuisine and ethereal wine, communicate with each other, make synergies beyond the ken of human intellect, to reveal an ecology of taste and experience that connect one to fundamental things." - Lineage: Life and Love and Six Generations in California Wine. #stevenkentmirassou @langandreed #cabernetfranc #lineagebook #thelineagecollection #writerandwinemaker 📷: @travelingnancy

New Essay on the nexus of writing and wine - li

New Essay on the nexus of writing and wine - link in bio. I love both of these pursuits, mostly because they are fundamentally the same. Writers and winemakers are desperate to communicate with people, to tell stories through words and wine...to make emotional connections and to share truths. In the most delicious way possible. #stevenkentmirassou #lineagebook #writerandwinemaker #bookstagram #royaltypewriter

If your wine has W.A.F.T. then it is beautiful and

If your wine has W.A.F.T. then it is beautiful and delicious!

There are a million different ways of evaluating wine - point totals, grades, puffs, stars, thumbs-up, thumbs-down, you name it. Each of these methods is an imprecise way of trying to encapsulate what is good (or not-so-good) about a particular wine.

With W.A.F.T. (Wood. Acid. Fruit. Tannin.) there are no scores or grades. There is only Yes or No.

W.A.F.T. is about balance, about all the fundamental elements of a wine working together to create harmony and deliciousness. #WAFT #stevenkentmirassou #thelineagecollection #lineagebook #wine #writerandwinemaker

The most important questions about wine…was it d

The most important questions about wine…was it delicious? Did it bring me joy? #winetruth #thelineagecollection #winevideo #stevenkentmirassou #writerandwinemaker #lineagebook #6thgenerationwinemaker

“I remember the first time I tasted real Caberne

“I remember the first time I tasted real Cabernet Franc. I had just finished Kermit Lynch’s great wine book describing how he built his business, and I was compelled to taste the wines he had discovered in his travels. I bought some of the ’09 and 2010 vintage of what he had and knew that I had found a vinous signpost for myself. The wines of Joguet and the Bretons, eminent producers from the Loire Valley, flaunted their austerity and shoved their acidity right up in your face, fruit parading like a hooker in the old Times Square. These producers made a number of different wines; all had these things in common: they were 100% Cabernet Franc, they had an undeniable energy and sexiness, and they were flat-out delicious. Like the best of wines, these bottles created an emotional connection with me that continues to thrill.” #cabernetfranc #stevenkentmirassou #lineagebook #thelineagecollection #writerandwinemaker #6thgenerationwinemaker #sexiestgrapealive @lautrecotecabernetfranc @lineagecollection @skwinery @lineagewine #bookstagram

This is your brain on a whole day of barrel surfin

This is your brain on a whole day of barrel surfing! #lineagewine #wine #barrelsurfing #stevenkentmirassou #writer #bookstagram #cabernetfranc

“I realize that tilting at windmills is probably

“I realize that tilting at windmills is probably a buried need to have an excuse when things don’t work out. Deep down, maybe true. I tend to look at such struggles, though, as usefully noble acts. I am attempting to make one of the world’s finest wines—a blend of the five historic Bordeaux varieties—from my estate vineyards in the Livermore Valley. This endeavor is not just a labor of passion and love; it is also a labor of pissed-offed-ness, of pride, of envelope-pushing. It is a quest to wring the best from myself, to lay myself out naked to the world with only my own sense of beauty and perfection to shield me, just as I necessarily must wring the most and best from the vines that delimit the finest pieces of dirt in my appellation.” @lineagewine #lineagebook #stevenkentmirassou #bookstagram #writer #writerandwinemaker

-man confronting menu; -man contemplating burger;

-man confronting menu; -man contemplating burger; man gorging on burger; man sure of burger choice. @sabiopleasanton TBD BURGER- Greatness! “TBD Dry Aged Burger & French Onion Fries
CreamCo Beef Chuck, CreamCo Crispy Pork Belly, Burgundy Black Truffle Boursin, Bread & Butter Pickles, Shallot Marmalade, Frisee, Hoover Ranch Egg, Sesame BriocheServed with Hand Cut Fries with Sherry & Caramelized Onion Gravy, Melted Cave-Aged Gruyere” #greatfood #sabioonmain

Lineage: Life and Love and Six Generation in Calif

Lineage: Life and Love and Six Generation in California Wine is my first book. I’ve spent much of the last 30 years thinking about what’s written here and many hours of the last year-and-a-half putting those thoughts on paper. Writers and winemakers have the same job, really. Each of them is desperate to communicate with someone else, to use words or grapes to tell a story and to forge an emotional connection.

Lineage – the book, then, is my attempt to get at the heart…and to the heart. It is a book about one family’s history in the wine business and a history of my winegrowing region. Mostly, though, it is a love letter to the glories of vineyards and cellars, to the craft of shepherding unruly nature into the bottomless beauty that is wine, and to all those here and gone who have lived and worked in the wine life. #bookstagram #writerandwinemaker #lineagebook #stevenkentmirassou

“Slashes of palpable passion and color from this

“Slashes of palpable passion and color from this verbal winemaking painter. An unforgettable dive into a generational California family wine legacy. You will emerge knowing why wine is magic.” Kind words for my book by the great #Robin Lail, one of the true legends of Napa Valley. #bookstagram #lineagebook #cabernetfranc #thelineagecollection @awineyouwillgopher #livermorevalleywinecountry @lailvineyards #stevenkentmirassou #writerandwinemaker

A love letter to cellars, vineyards, and those who

A love letter to cellars, vineyards, and those who devote their lives to hospitality. Lineage: Life and Love and Six Generations in California Wine available to order (see link in bio). #bookstagram #lineagebook #winewriter #writerandwinemaker #stevenkentmirassou #sixthgenerationwinemaker #livermorevalleywinecountry #books

From my forthcoming book - a love letter to cellar

From my forthcoming book - a love letter to cellars, vineyards, and all the people who work in hospitality to bring joy and richness to peoples’ lives. Available to pre-order (link in bio). #bookstagrammers #bookstagram #writerandwinemaker #lineagethebook #lineagebook #winewriter #thelineagecollection @lautrecotecabernetfranc

Behind the scenes at the @goodmorningamerica shoot

Behind the scenes at the @goodmorningamerica shoot. Happy to represent @lineagecollection and @livermorevalleywinecountry. #6thgenerationwinemaker #livermorewinecountry #writerandwinemaker #gma #cabernetfranc

New review for my book from esteemed writer, @jame

New review for my book from esteemed writer, @jamespattersonbooks. Check bio to order:
-
I’m not certain about this, but I think that almost everything worthwhile in life starts with passion. Steven Kent Mirassou clearly has a passion for making wine and this radiates from every page of his book, Lineage. But Mirassou also has a passion for people, a passion for healthy food, and a passion for writing. He has crafted every line of this book much as he crafts his very fine wines, and his life. Give the book Lineage a taste. You’ll finish it and be glad that you did.”

— James Patterson, legendary writer, philanthropist and New York Times best-selling author. #lineagebook #stevenkentmirassou #winebook #bookstagrammer 📷: @ronessexphotography

As I write in my forthcoming book, Lineage: Life a

As I write in my forthcoming book, Lineage: Life and Love and Six Generations in California Wine:

“The restaurant is the place where the hurly-burly of the day is quarantined. You enter alone, infected by the tumult of the noisome and uncaring world outside, you are made comfortable and are fed (an act of intimacy second only to sex), and you find yourself cordially bound to a tradition of work, horrendously difficult and so glorious because of that difficulty, that connects you to things beautiful and delicious, sustaining and transitory. For most restaurateurs the transaction is not a financially equitable one, and the attrition of restaurants is staggeringly high. If not for the money, why do these lunatic and magnanimous people do what they do? Simply, they must. And we are, very fortunately, the recipients of their compulsive caring.”

Hospitality is a calling…a mission. Whether your hospitality vehicle is wine or food, the motivation is the same: the authentic need to take care of people. At The Lineage Collection, as at the finer establishments throughout the Tri-Valley, hospitality done well is our animating force. We love adding joy and richness to peoples’ lives and, like Range Life, chock-up really bad behavior to an occasional challenge that not only makes us better but also underscores the beauty inherent in a transaction between two parties desiring the same hospitable outcome. #hospitality #wineandfood #rangelifelivermore #thelineagecollection #writerandwinemaker #writer #winemaker #takingcareofpeople #livermorewinecountry #sixthgenerationwinemaker @rangelife_livermore #lineagebook

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