Lavish Laines Winery celebrated their grand opening last weekend in their new Buena Vista location in south Livermore. The turnout seemed reasonably high for the small winery, especially when visitors crowded the tasting room during the light, sporadic afternoon rainfall.
Located in the most desirable section of Livermore’s wine tasting district, Lavish Laines’ small property, which is under three acres, lies in one of California’s first wine regions. Although Napa Valley is considered to be “wine country,” Livermore has a deep-rooted history in wine-making, starting with the opening of the first commercial vineyard by Robert Livermore in the mid 1800’s, according to Livermore Wine Valley’s website.
Even though Napa Valley and Sonoma County present significant competition, Livermore is known to have great local wines because of the climate and soil conditions, which smoothes out the production process while yielding more consistent results.
Although this is enough to have a highbrow attitude about, Livermore is home to several wineries that are culturally refined, but hardly contemptuous. Lavish Laines was no exception, with their casually dressed staff in black aprons serving up six different types of wine for only $5.
Owners are planning a remodeling project to begin within the coming months to create more office space and have a kitchen put in, further expanding the business and adding to their list of services. It is very apparent that quality is important to Lavish Laines, who take great pride in participating in the entire process of wine making.
Lavish Laines doesn’t use electrical machinery to make their wines. Outside of the tasting room is a manual device used to crush 500 pounds of grapes at a time. The juice is then aged inside of oak barrels until it is ready to be bottled, corked and hand-labeled.
Owner and Vice President of Marketing of Lavish Laines, Kyle Ritchie, is confident in the winery’s old-school methods. “We are involved in the entire process, from picking the grapes all the way through bottling,” said Ritchie. “We feel really good about what we’re producing here.”
The wines featured at the tasting were mostly of the red variety, with the exception of the surprisingly complex Chardonnay and the Gewürztraminer, which comes from a grape with pink to red skin, technically making it a white wine grape, as opposed to the dark blue and black varieties of the red wine grape. Gewürztraminer’s grapes have a higher sugar content than other white whine grapes, and soft floral notes, making this slightly dry wine very enjoyable.
Another unique element to Lavish Laines is the staff, many of them veterans who needed work following their military careers. Ritchie, the only non-veteran partner of the winery, feels hiring veterans was one of the best personal and professional choices made by the business. “Many of these guys came home and needed work,” said Ritchie. “The veterans we’ve hired from every branch of service are dedicated, hard working people.”
Lavish Laines’ hardworking team definitely make up part of their charm, as well as their traditional, straight-forward methods of creating a delicious component of California’s history.
