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WINEMAKING CALIFORNIA Napa San Francisco Pacific Ocean Monterey San Jose CALIFORNIA NV Steven Kent & La Rochelle Winery TECHNICAL REVIEW The Steven Kent Winery tasting room (left) is situated near the La Rochelle tasting room (center) in Livermore. Steven Kent Mirassou sources fruit Winery Within a Winery Within… How two historic families cooperate in California's Livermore Valley By Tim Patterson Highlights • The Steven Kent and La Rochelle alter- nating proprietorships at Wente Vineyards in Livermore, Calif., show the advantages and limitations of this winery model. • The two brands use Wente's small-lot win- ery to make mostly Bordeaux-variety wines for Steven Kent and mostly Pinot Noir for La Rochelle. • Combining plastic-lined plywood fermen- tors with top-notch barrels and advanced lab equipment produces wines that mostly sell directly to consumers at prices aver- aging from $50 to $65 per bottle. 48 Wines & Vines JAnUARY 2012 from larger operations. Especially with the proliferation of custom-crush facili- ties in recent years, APs have multiplied like rabbits; they now make up roughly half of California wine labels, though they account for a much smaller share of wine volume. Often, the holder of an AP license is a former home winemaker with dreams of making the big time, pursuing his or her dreams out of an 8-by-10-foot wire- framed cage inside a generic warehouse shared by 50 other brands. This one is a little different. Between A them, Steven Kent Winery and La Rochelle Winery put out about 9,000 cases of wine—most of it selling for lot of wine in California and across the United States is made through alternating proprietor (AP) arrange- ments—"tenant" wineries renting space and equipment between $35 and $75 per bottle—and distribute it in several states. Their AP is not just a winery within a winery, but more like one of those Russian nesting dolls: a winery (really, two wineries) within a specialized small-lot facility that is, in turn, part of a much bigger winery operation. What's most unusual, though, is that this venture unites two historic, pioneering families in California wine: the sixth generation of the Mirassous (through winemaker Steven Kent Mirassou) and the Wentes (currently on their fourth and fifth generations.) Even with such stellar family credentials, the Kent/La Rochelle AP is a good example of the advantages and limitations of this winery model, one that's becoming more common every day. In a nutshell, La Rochelle winemaker Tom Stutz puts it this way: "The advantage of alternating proprietorship is that