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
Tag: Mia Nipote Wines
I Dream of the Pruning Shear
I dream of the pruning shear. And the wood unmoored, And the fulgent buds as they fall. I come upon a hand of shading fingers Where one will suffice, A crone’s polydactyly. The chink of shear, and the weep at the reaping. The blood tastes Of sweet clean water. On
Barbera – Mysterious Origins, Noble Variety
Barbera is like a clue, a cipher left in crabby, penciled writing on parchment grown brown and wrinkled. Like the iconic drifter who saves the town, no one is sure where Barbera came from. Its genetics indicate that it may have been introduced to Italy in the 1600s, but it
The Harvest is Upon Us
Harvest snuck up on me again. I’ve been doing this long enough to know when the first grapes will come in, but each year I’m still surprised. Harvest is holy. Harvest is hard. Harvest is healing.
A Condom for Cabernet
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
Cellar Ladders
As the 2020 harvest fast approaches, we are busy in the cellar making our first official evaluations of the 2019 wines. We devote about an hour a day making detailed notes on each barrel in a specific lot, thinking about where that particular barrel may ultimately end up. The cellar
Deep Like the Upright Bass
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
What Success Looks Like
I’ll be heading to Southern California in a couple of weeks to do a wine dinner and to work the market. I won’t be at home with my girlfriend and dogs (my favorite place) nor at the winery (the next best), and I’m hoping that what I’ll do over those
The Morning Tool Chest
First thing, every morning (well, after a cup of coffee!) I take my collection of stuff to the fermenting bins to determine how far along the road to dryness each fermenter is. I draw some wine from under the cap of skins with the siphon (turkey-baster thingy), strain it through