Livermore Valley Cab Franc Producers & Advocates

New organization looks to creates an identity for an historic wine region around the world's sexiest grape

I’m too old not to grasp an opportunity. I’m also an inveterate people-pleaser and a consensus-builder so striking out on my own, perhaps even despite the choices of my local winegrowing association feels fraught.

I’m convinced that the future of the Livermore Valley, if it has one, is centered around Cabernet Franc (I’ve written here why I believe in the esthetic wonder of the variety, and, I’m also convinced that my region needs to put its marketing eggs in the Cab Franc basket — bring Cab Franc-lovers and the Cab Franc-curious to Livermore with the promise of world-class examples, then wow them with all the other wonderful wines we make. If our tagline is we grow everything pretty well here then we have failed. The more focused a story we tell, the better chance we have to get people to understand what it is we stand for here. Consequently, my wife, Beth, and I decided to start an organization whose mission it is to create a Cab Franc identity for the Livermore Valley.

These are exciting times in Livermore Valley. We are one of the oldest growing areas in the State — arguably the first great growing region — and we are finally charting our own destiny. We are building it, and we are confident that lovers of Cabernet Franc will most certainly come.

LVCFPA - Livermore Valley Cab Franc Producers & Advocates was formed on June 25, 2024 with six charter members: The Steven Kent Winery, Cellar 13 Winery, Cuda Ridge Wines, Darcie Kent Vineyards, Rodrigue Molyneaux Winery, and Rosie Fierro Cellars. All of us produce Cabernet Franc from the Livermore Valley (or soon will), all of us believe in the importance of having a varietal signifier as an emblem for our growing region, believe in the need to attract investment in additional vineyard acreage planted to Cabernet Franc, and look to work together to help each other to tell the Livermore Valley Cab Franc story.