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 Livermore, CA with his wife, Beth Murray Mirassou, and their two dogs
In a new post on Wine Saves Lives!, Steven Kent Mirassou and Beth Murray of The Steven Kent Winery talk about the new release of The Premier, Steven Kent’s best Cabernet. This vintage, due to the smoke-taint that affected nearly all of the 2020 Livermore harvest, The Premier was made
When I was young and didn’t know anything, young and tannic and fruit-forward wines seemed like the cat’s pajamas. What could be more delicious than the obviousness of youth? Over time that same dumb winemaker, with a little more leather on his hide and many more wines across his gullet
Today was one of those perfect harvest days where there are way too many things to do in the number of hours available and yet the day – in its perfect wisdom – opens itself felicitously to allow everything to be squeezed in and the day to start and to
I had the wonderful opportunity to taste the Steven Kent Winery 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon, one of our very early vintages, after locating a half-bottle in a case that was being moved to another warehouse. Beth Refsnider, a member of our winemaking team, took the wine to one of the
Here is a throw-back video I made discussing how thinking (and feeling) about which wine an individual barrel should go into may be more important than tasting where it should go.
The senses are the winemaker’s greatest tools. The ability to smell and taste and remember what you’ve experienced from barrel to barrel are crucial in putting together consistent wines. Outside influences, like Brettanomyces, a spoilage yeast that lives everywhere in the winery, can get in the way of the true expression of
Lineage is our most complicated blend; it can comprise five different grapes (the classic Bordeaux varieties) and Cabernet Sauvignon from more than 10 blocks on six vineyards. Aidan, Beth, and I start each year with nearly 150 barrels of wine, and from these, we carve aspirants away until we are
I had the opportunity today to get my glass and my thief and my spit cup and go into the cellar to taste through barrels. We call it barrel surfing and believe that it should be an Olympic sport (it’s that much fun!). Taste a barrel, make notes, sanitize the
If no one knows a wine exists, it doesn’t matter how great it may be. When the people who know about that wine are prominent wine critics (and they’re saying nice things about the wines), the megaphone gets larger. Steve Heimoff, former critic for the Wine Enthusiast and one of
I was working on my book late at night on my patio – Miles Davis on the speaker – and had a glass of Mia Nipote’s Il Rinnovo to accompany me. Unplanned, they all worked together so well. Miles, light but deep, Il Rinnovo (a blend of Petite Sirah and
