Located just east of San Francisco, and nestled in the picturesque Livermore Valley, Wente Vineyards continues a long tradition of impressive wine production. Wente Vineyards, is the oldest family owned winery in the United States, and credited for much of the early success of the California wine industry.

Carl Heinrich Wente emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1880, and worked briefly under the tutelage of Napa winemaker, Charles Krug. Within three years, Wente and a small group of investors purchased forty-eight acres in the Livermore Valley. Known for warm days, cool nights, and impressive soil, the area promised the prospect of superior grape production.

By the turn of the century, Wente Vineyards owned more than two thousand acres, and was the largest winery in the valley. Sons Ernest and Herman joined the company, and expanded the winery’s influence.

In 1912 while studying at Montpellier University in France, Ernest obtained a Chardonnay clone and brought it home to Livermore. The original plantings thrived in the family’s vineyard, and today Wente’s clone comprises the majority of all Chardonnay grapes produced in California.

Initially, Wente produced, bottled, and sold his wines to distributors, who applied and marketed their own labels. In 1915, at the Panama Pacific International Exposition, five of Wente’s wines won gold medals, but under another company’s name. Over the following decades, the winery continued to produce quality wines, but under a variety of Wente Vineyard labels.

Best known for producing quality wines at every price point, Wente Vineyards is still a formidable force in the industry. In 2011, Wine Enthusiast Magazine named Wente Family Estates “American Winery of the Year.”