About Wente Vineyards
Wente Vineyards is the oldest continuously operated, family-owned winery in the United States, a distinction that stretches back to 1883 when German immigrant C.H. Wente, having learned the craft under Charles Krug in Napa Valley, purchased 47 acres in the Livermore Valley and planted his first vines. What followed is one of the most consequential stories in American wine. In 1912, second-generation winegrower Ernest Wente propagated Chardonnay cuttings that would become the legendary Wente Clone, the genetic source of more than 75 percent of all Chardonnay planted in California today. The family released the nation's first varietally labeled wines, including a Sauvignon Blanc and the country's first Chardonnay bearing a varietal label in 1936. The estate is registered as California Historical Landmark No. 957, and today the fourth and fifth generations lead a women-led, sustainably farmed winery that farms approximately 3,000 acres of estate vineyards just 30 miles east of San Francisco.
The Wente estate on Arroyo Road is a complete wine country destination unlike anything else in the Livermore Valley. The Tasting Lounge offers walk-up tastings, seated flights, and guided cave tours through two historic wine caves bored into the hillside, the same caves the family used to shelter sacramental wines from authorities during Prohibition. Beyond wine, the property is home to The Course at Wente Vineyards, a stunning 18-hole, par-72 championship golf course designed by Greg Norman and opened in 1998. It was Norman's first course design in the United States, and the layout weaves through three distinct topographies of native woodlands, mature vineyards, and rolling golden grasslands with elevation changes that deliver panoramic vistas across the valley. The Course has hosted the PGA Tour's Nationwide Tour and consistently ranks among the top courses in California. The Spanish-style Cresta Blanca Event Center, originally a historic winery in its own right, hosts weddings, concerts, and gatherings, and the grounds include a restaurant, organic garden, and enough room to spend an entire day without running out of things to do.
