Concannon Vineyard Livermore Valley

ryano said:

posted Oct 30, 2009 at 6:13PM

Their still putting together their new tasting room but it looks to be quite posh for the Livermore Valley. My wife and I stopped in to try them since its been YEARS since we last tasted their wines. I think the quality of the wines has gotten better for sure but there wasn't anything that blew me away. Each wine they poured (7 in total) were crafted well but lacked that "umami" aspect. All their reds seemed to have a small percentage of Petite Sirah which they're most known for. Apparently they do all their blends in a democratic fashion and the owner and winemaker give their thumbs up or thumbs down until the majority agrees on the final makeup. Which tells me the winemaker isn't putting his own spin on any of the wines... they're basically all wines to please the mob. The tasting experience was typical of a large commercial winery... pay for the tasting upfront, keep the glass, folks pouring didn't engage us in conversation... it felt very "pony up to the bar, drink your tasting, buy or not, then leave" experience. Concannon's wines are well distributed so there's an appeal to visit if you're from out of town but for the locals, it comes off as a bit pretentious. When I finally spoke to someone pouring, they spoke negatively of a new, small winery in town as if their attempt to be a winery was comical. I felt like saying, "hey, we all have to start somewhere" but he made his opinion well known and didn't seem to open to another perspective. Oh well... there's plenty other places to visit and take friends.