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.
Here is a behind-the-scenes conversation with the winemaking team of The Steven Kent Winery as they talk about two world-class Cabernet Francs. If you want more content like this think about subscribing to my substack.
The Lineage Wine Collection winemaking team got together recently to drink and talk about the similarities and differences between the Livermore Valley’s finest Cab Franc – L’Autre Côte – and the legendary Samur Champigny producer, Clos Rougeard.
A friend of mine, Brandon Wood, just opened up a new and magical cheese shop in downtown Livermore. As our wine region becomes more mature and begins showing off its world-class bona fides, it needs more artisanal places like The Cheese Parlor. Brandon and I talk cheese and wine in
Keynote Address to the 3rd Annual Cabernet Franc Celebration Copperopolis, CA April 7, 2022 ________________ Finding Home: Why the Livermore Valley Should Become Cabernet Franc’s New Spiritual Center Hello, I’m Steven Kent Mirassou, Proprietor & Winemaker of the Lineage Wine Collection, and I call the Livermore Valley home. I
Aging away gracefully is a puncheon of 2021 Cabernet Franc from the Ghielmetti Vineyard destined for Lineage or L’Autre Côte. The 2021 vintage is stunning, perhaps the finest we have yet made though the newly released 2018 is now available and setting the current standard of excellence for Livermore Valley
Recently, a growing number of Livermore Valley winemakers has been meeting frequently to taste wines from all over the world. Beth Refsnider, Assistant Winemaker from the Lineage Wine Collection, Julie Schreiber from the Livermore Valley Quality Alliance, and others have led the effort to give our winemakers new examples of
The Lineage Wine Collection’s winemaking team talk about great Cabernet Francs from Leah Jørgensen Cellars in Oregon and the Steven Kent Winery in the Livermore Valley.
In this video, I talk about the effect of different-sized barrels on Cabernet Franc. By looking at samples of the same wine from puncheons and barriques, we can see how the wood choices of winemakers can highlight or obscure the most important characteristics of Cabernet Franc.
The 2021 vintage has finally been put to bed. I could not be more excited about the potential quality of this year – thinking right now that it will be as good as 2017 and 2018 – but I am especially gratified about the wines we made from the Santa
