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

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stevenkentmirassou

#telluride gondola framed by clouds. Unbelievably

#telluride gondola framed by clouds. Unbelievably beautiful place! @travelingnancy and I at the @telluridewinefestival. #thelineagecollection

@aidanjmirassou and @beth.refsnider at the top of

@aidanjmirassou and @beth.refsnider at the top of the amazing #zayantevineyard. Merlot from this own-rooted, dry- and organically-farmed site is now in fermenters. Will be a crucial piece of our Right Bank blend. #thelineagecollection #6thgenerationwinemaker #lautrecote

I’m thrilled to be able to join Michael and Cari

I’m thrilled to be able to join Michael and Cari, owners of @cellarsandwine in Walnut Creek where I will be pouring wine and doing a book signing on Saturday from 5pm-7pm! Wine Hardware is a gorgeous store that specializes in bespoke wine cellars as well as having a great selection of wine and wine books. I look forward to seeing you and pouring you some wine! #lineagebook #stevenkentmirassou #booksigning @lineagecollection @lautrecotecabernetfranc

It turns out that you can shove 13 picking bins in

It turns out that you can shove 13 picking bins in a 20-foot U-haul! #harvest #batesranch #zayantevineyard @beth.refsnider @aidanjmirassou #thelineagecollection

Barbera rosé bubbles in a press drain pan. This i

Barbera rosé bubbles in a press drain pan. This is the first step in our way to making gorgeous sparkling wine. #thelineagecollection #barbera #sparklingwine @lineagecollection

Today, my book Lineage: Life and Love and Six Gene

Today, my book Lineage: Life and Love and Six Generations in California Wine is officially birthed to the world and available on Amazon.com. What an amazing feeling!

I spent about 18 months before and during Covid writing this love letter to
Life and Love and Six Generations in California Wine
cellars and vineyards, wine, and those crazy and wonderful people who work shepherding unruly nature into something beautiful and delicious.

The process of writing the book changed me in profound ways: it brought my older self in direct contact with the aspirations I had as a young man, helped me to prove to myself that I could actually finish a project like this, and gave me a lot of concentrated time to think deeply about why winemaking is one of the two greatest fields of endeavor that I can imagine.

As writing takes on a more consistent and important part of my professional life, I am fascinated and excited by all the possibilities. I'm working on a book on Cabernet Franc and a novel about a psychopathic circus performer/bounty hunter (she might even be the heroine of the story....?) as well as a variety of shorter work. Feel free to subscribe to my newsletter to keep up to date with all the new projects.

I'm extremely proud of the way Lineage turned out. It is a beautiful book, designed by Connie Hwang and published by Paul Chutkow of Val de Grace press. Lineage is also a book that dives down deeply into one man's search for esthetic truth and one wine lover's story about the bottomless beauty of wine and its ability to transfigure time. If you haven't read it yet, you can find a link to my website in the bio or go to Amazon.com. #lineagebook #stevenkentmirassou #writer #winemaker #thelineagecollection @conniehwangdesign @valdegrace_books

I had the great pleasure to be a guest on Mary Orl

I had the great pleasure to be a guest on Mary Orlin and Mary Babbitt's podcast: @sipsiphooraypodcast to talk about family history, Livermore Valley, wine, and the publication of my book, Lineage: Life and Love and Six Generations in California Wine.

Both Marys are long-time wine industry experts and friends. It took 15 years from an appearance on their TV show In Wine Country to this episode of their podcast, but I don't think we missed a beat! #maryorlin #marybabbitt #thelineagecollection #stevenkentmirassou

It is an amazing thrill to be on the verge of havi

It is an amazing thrill to be on the verge of having my first book, Lineage: Life and Love and Six Generations in California Wine, in the hands of interested readers. I’m always keen to try things I’ve never done before, and I got to tell you – being able to sign books for people is ridiculously cool! (Links in Bio) #stevenkentmirassou #bookstagram #lineagebook #writer #winemaker #thelineagecollection

Very excited that “Lineage” the book has final

Very excited that “Lineage” the book has finally arrived at the winery. Also gratified to be able to share a story that is mostly about those people who (against practically all odds of financial success) still work to bring into the world something of beauty and emotional, people-connecting value. (Links in bio) #lineagebook #stevenkentmirassou #writerandwinemaker #bookstagram #thelineagecollection #writersofinstagram #winemaker

A journey that started 167 years ago in a vineyard

A journey that started 167 years ago in a vineyard my great-great-great-grandfather planted in San Jose ended yesterday morning on the stamped concrete driveway of my winery with the delivery of the first pallets of Lineage: Life and Love and Sixth Generations in California Wine.

As the oldest winemaking family in the US, there have been a lot of pins placed on our winemaking timeline. The publication of my first book is just the latest. What started out as very intermittent jottings over the course of the last 20 years, gained clarity and an open mental runway during Covid. Most nights in 2020, I’d stay up late with just Miles Davis to keep me company as I wrote about the most meaningful aspects of being in the wine life.

The simple, everyday magic to be found in hard, purposeful work as we shepherd unruly nature into bottomlessly beautiful wine is as much as I could want from this part of my life.

The line connecting me, unendingly, to my thrice-removed grandfather and now to the generations after me – all of us in pursuit of making beauty and bringing joy and richness to peoples’ lives through wine – is stronger and more clearly defined than it has ever been. The road getting here has had many corners and led to a few empty rooms, but is comforting to know that is the right road after all. (Link for ordering in bio) #bookstagram #lineagebook #stevenkentmirassou #writerandwinemaker #winewriting #writersofinstagram #thelineagecollection

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

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