Lineage Wine Company’s singular offering aspires to be one of the truly great Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines in the world. Lineage | Livermore Valley is a product of meticulously-farmed fruit from the Livermore Valley’s finest vineyards and the vision of sixth-generation winemaker, Steven Mirassou.
      2017 marks our eleventh, and finest, release of Lineage thus far. The wine comprises fewer than 400 cases and more than 80% of our Bordeaux-varietal production was declassified. With the exception of the 2011 and 2015 vintages, this decade has produced a string of harvest-year conditions that are characterized by consistency and temperance. Typically, our appellation, from July – August, hovers around 88 degrees on average. This temperature is ideal for the uniform ripening of fruit going through veraison during this window. Heat spikes around Labor Day are generally brief, though this year temperatures of greater than 105o lasted for five straight days and presented a great challenge to those who did not water into the heat event properly.
      All of the fruit coming in from the six different vineyards we use was of the highest quality we have seen in 24 years of winemaking in Livermore. The level of fruit quality was so elevated that five different sites contributed Cabernet Sauvignon to the final blend. While Cabernet Franc has been ascendant in terms of its percentage of the overall blend, 2017 saw Merlot taking its place as the second largest contributor at 20%. This variety was remarkably structured and flavorful, surpassing the 2009 as the best Merlot with which we have worked. The 2017 release is gorgeously massive and will require 5-10 years to begin to show its myriad complexities. With proper storage, 2017 Lineage will age for 30 years.