Darcie Kent Winery - Darcie Kent

Welcome to Wine Soundtrack USA. Listen to the passion with which producers narrate their winery and their world. In thirty answers discover their stories, personalities, and passions.

Hello, friends and listeners of Wine Soundtrack. This is Alson Levine and today I'm in the Livermore Valley with Darcy Kent Winery and the owner and artist of the same name, Darcy Kent. Darcy, welcome to Wine Soundtrack and tell us about the winery named after you.

Thank you.

I'm going to keep saying Darcy Kent from Darcy Kent.

I know it's always very confusing. It's like me or the brand. Thank you.

I am so delighted, really been looking forward to the interview. And it's a gorgeous day. So this is a lot of fun. We started this winery on this property eleven years ago, but we started with a single wine mayor Low in nineteen ninety six. But I am fifth generation in the United States and our seventh was just born three months ago. Congratulations than Hazel.

How wonderful.

So you're located here in the Livermore Valley and you've been making wine here, but you come from a long history of wine right.

I do.

I do.

The wine making and wine growing has just been a part of every generation of our family. My great great grandfather came over from Switzerland, you know, not a rip rowing wine country, but big I mean, you know, they made a living from it, yea. And they came over and during the pandemic and they they in almost an entire village moved over and they were looking for a

He was arrested for. I had proof that we ran a speakeasy.

Yes, So here we are, you know, five generations later and you're making wine here in the Livermore Valley. Tell me a little bit about Darcy Kent. How many acres do you have and what are you producing right now?

We have eighty acres on vine.

We are producing everything from gruner velt, Leiner, sauvignon, blanc albert Raino. So many great, right, three different clones of pino noir, chardonnay, the uh, two different kindes of cabernet, sauvignon, Cabernet franc, petit verdeaux mayor low wow, uh, primativo.

Petit Sarah. That's all I can think of a thing. And are all the eighty acres sort of continuous right here around the property?

They there's fifteen acres here on vine. Then straight across the right, immediately across the road are the rest.

Okay, so you're growing peanut no water petits around cabernet in the same place we are.

The wine region is amazing. We have incredible diurnal swings, which means the temperatures swing forty degrees every day, which is unusual most you know regions. You look on the news in the morning when the temperatures dial across the screen and it's usually a twenty degree swing if that, Yeah, and we get forty, so it's the end.

Then there's the prepare vitual winds.

I know that, you know, as the as the you know, climate change is happening in the central Valley is getting warmer. We're getting the fog brought in and the wind that that creates deeper, longer, harder, and so our temperatures were actually cooling. We've gone from a cool region four and now we're a cool region three.

Wow. Yeah, So you have eighty acres.

How many do you buy any fruit? Or do you do only a state fruit?

We lease fruit.

We do occasionally buy and but the ninety nine percent of it is least in long term lease.

Or our own.

And how many cases do you make?

Oh?

God, as we're ramping up, it's over thirty thousand cases now so closer to thirty five thousand cases.

So you're in full distribution. I'm assuming you're not just direct to consumer. But are your wines available across the country and are they available internationally?

That's a whole another story.

We used to be and then you know, COVID really killed everybody. The being a mid size winery, small mid sized winery as we are, even though we're you know, really big for this valley.

Is it's a difficult position with the distributors.

They really are playing with the big players, and because the margins are just better, you know.

Yeah, So so right now you're you're really relying on the DTC that people coming in here is fabulous.

We are also distributed in southern California through you know, Pavilions and Vonds up here through Safeway Costco as well as Albertson's and yeah, so we're slowly growing in those markets and chains.

I feel it's a really important market to hit.

Not everybody wants to deal with getting on a phone or the web site and ordering wines DTC direct to consumer.

Sometimes you just want to walk into store and buy it. Yeah, yeah, so do I. And if you're ever in a store and you see the Darcy Kent label, you know, there's a real human named Darcy Kent. It's not made up.

I'm right here.

So, Darcy, you said that you are multi generation kind of connected to wine. But what's your first memory relevant to wine? As you.

Wow, it probably goes back to the beginning because we're brought up with wine in our family, and we brought our daughters up that same way too. They at the dinner table, they were allowed to sniffe it, describe it, talk about it. As they got a little bit older, they could have little SIPs. As they got a little

So in a way, instead of having a first memory of it, it's just always been part of your.

Life, always wine and art.

So with all the time, with all the wines you've been drinking for as many years, and I'm sure you know when you were a child, this isn't going to be a But is there one that stands out as an AHA moment for you? Was there a point you tasted a wine and you just said wow? For maybe you said now I want to make wine, or now I want to pursue this, or I didn't know wine could be like this.

Wow. We were making.

Ar mayor Low and all of a sudden, you know, we started investing in things like shaker tables, and we were investing in hand sorting and or hand picking and then sorting by hand. And when that wine and we had been playing with barrels for a long time but really had settled on some favorite Cooper ridges. And when we opened this wine, Julian and I, you know, I just got weak in the knees. I had to sit down and I cried. You know, it was like, wow, that's kind.

Of an AHA moment.

Yeah, you know, you're just like, okay, you know, we can do.

This, so that one little more low and then here we are today.

It was it was it was our one little baby, you know. I love that. Love that.

So now if we come to your home, what would we find in there? I mean, is there a lot of more low? Is it a lot of your wines or wines from around the world, particular great varieties. What do you collect? What do you drink?

Big on pinot?

We really love pino noir, So that seems to be what our cellar has had been filled with. You know, as we're getting I don't want to say as we're getting older, but as we're you know, I find our cellars is going more to aromatic whites, huh, and also to cab fronc some you know, things that are lesser known and are just you know, full of aromatics and are just you know, just have a story to tell. Every time you take a sip, you know.

Is there anything you opened up recently that drank really well?

Oh, I should have a quick answer. I know I'm sitting here going everything is really incredible. We you know that I'm actually right now so enchanted with our twenty three Sauvignon Bloc. Every time I open that bottle, every time that those aromatics fill the room. You know, I just to me, it's it's like, you know, like summertime. It just brightens my day just to smell it, not even to taste it. But it's it's incredib do complex, but also it just fills your heart with sunshine.

Well, speaking of Sauvigno blanca and other great varieties, do you think there's a such thing as a perfect variety?

No, much like I don't think there's a perfect genre of music. You know, people ask me that at every club event, what's your favorite wine? And it's like that's asking me to choose what's my favorite music? You know, it depends what season are we in, what time of day is it?

What have I just done? How tired am I? How awake am I? You know? What am I eating? Am I not eating?

You know, there's a million selections of music as well as you know, as wine, and thank.

God for that.

Yeah. Well, and you know you're making you make a variety of wines. You talked about all the grapes that you're growing, so you're clearly working with a lot of different grape varieties. And I'm wondering for somebody who's never tasted your wine before, they've never had a Darcy Can't wine, what do you think they're missing out on?

Tasting the fruit? It's authenticity the vineyard. What happened in the vineyard that year. You know, how much did the sunshine, how much did a rain? What were the flowers or grasses growing? You know, because those are all the things that you're picking up on and you're tasting. We let the wine be made in the vineyard, Julian and the team.

So if space aliens were to land on your property right now and walk up and knock on the door, which of your wines would you welcome them with to say, you know, this is Darcy Kent Winery.

I would do our sauvign miscue, the Sauvignon Blanc. It's the misca clone, so very aromatic, very aromatic, because it's it's just something that doesn't hide. And even a novice is going to, you know, immediately their eyes will pop open and and they're going to see that, oh, this this smells good. I do want to try this. But sometimes, you know, a wine, you know, you have to coax it a little bit, or it has more nuances. This Sauvignyan blanc just leaps out of the glass.

Is it liked by most people that taste it?

Oh? Yeah, It's won the Sauvignon Blanc Summit this year.

This one congratulations.

You you know it's it's gotten a ninety plus plus score in the Wine Enthusiast Double Gold at the San Francisco Chronicle.

And yeah, I think.

It's everybody seems to go crazy over it. It's this the Sauvignon mousque clone is just it's exquisite and I can't.

Wait for more people to discover it.

So here's a wine that the first thing you said when we started, it's a wine that you love. It's a wine that's drinking so well that you love it. But you also just named all these awards that it's won and scores has gotten and I'm wondering what your opinion is online critics and scores like that segue.

You know, it's it's fun when you're winning them all, of.

Course, and so you know, this is a great year to ask me because it's like we're winning everything. So I love it In years when you're not winning, you know, you're just kind of you're like, ah, you know. And same as with the art. Not everybody's going to love everything that you do, but there's enough. Yeah, I think you've got to make wine that you're proud of that is without fault. You don't put out a wine that

That, and it's like, great, we have something else. You know what it's going to show you.

And so when it comes to kind of wine critics, you know, of course, when you're getting great scores, you know, you take them and you sit up a little straighter, but you're not changing. You don't change things to adapt to scores. That doesn't drive your wine.

No, it helps with the distributors and with the stores, so it is very important for that.

But then when people come here, they just taste and they enjoy.

Yeah, you know, the customers actually, you know, I mean yeah, when you're trying to choose what flight you're going to taste or what winds you want to taste, if there's a score next to it that you respect, then it becomes easy.

Well, what about what you drink red whiter rose, I drink them all still are sparkling both. I really love bubbles and I'm getting into bubbles more and more. And we are also getting into bubbles more and more. We have a cook card press now and we're we'll be introducing our Blanc de Noir this fall, made with the Pino Noir, Pino Noir, the three Clones de Jon, the Swiss Clone and oh my gosh, I'm.

Having a senior moment. Pomar Okay, okay, well that is the yeah, Pamar de Jon and.

The Swiss Clone. So it's it's beautiful and I'm very excited about it. But this year we're also going to do a Soovin and blanc an al Barino, a Rose of Malbeck.

All sparkling, and you have the greener Velt Leader that I'm sipping on now.

Yes, I just think that bubbles, Oh my gosh, you know, there's so much fun and they just get the party started right, and you know it's it's why aren't we drinking more of these beautiful varietals in this way with bubbles?

You know?

So we're still we make all the base wines and we have a partner winery who fit does the dressage. But then but we're we're hopefully within the next year or two, we will be able to do all of that on side. So with all the sparkling wines and all the different wines you make in the different styles, and you talk about them as being speaking about the grape, letting the grape shine through, and not being you know, overly big or anything, how do you then approach pairing

Made the wine sing.

What do you think it was? Was it that they matched that they contrasted. Was it the wine elevating one or the food the other, or.

Was it elevated the wine and made the fruit notes of the wine just just come out and jump for joy, you know. And and an unlikely pairing he did, like a roasted be salad that made the rose of malbec just go leaping.

Out with strawberries, you know.

Wow.

So the idea is obviously to make the wine and the food both jump. Do you look for certain things if you were to pick a pairing or do you trust the chef to do it?

No?

No, we and that's why we you know, he prepared almost twenty different dishes for us to taste through and select in and we're you know, like he thought, for sure, these federals with this onion jam would be incredible with the pino noir, and I you know, it's like it just the wine went flat to me, and you know, it was like it's not working for me.

Did you find another pairing for those?

We did?

It's a toastata with short ribs and a molet sauce like a cheat because I have them, but heavy, heavy, heavy on the blackberries. I mean it was just loaded as a BlackBerry malay Wo and it really did pair beautifully with it.

Wow, making me hungry. And I can keep talking about food, but I mean it all comes from the vineyard. It all starts in the vineyard. And we are looking out at your vineyards. We walked past your vineyards as we came in here. And you know how much time do you spend walking through your vineyards?

Oh, every day, every day, every day.

You have two German shepherds, and we walk through them every day every day of the year.

You know that we're here so so awake occasionally, but you.

Know there and then in the fall, like last fall, you know, we were all we were the ones out there dropping all the fruit.

David and I my husband and I and are two German shepherds.

They don't do much work, but.

They're more also.

You know, it's but it's glorious to be in the vineyards that much and really get to know them. You know, you understand your different locations in the vineyard, where your trouble spots, where your really glorious spots.

Yeah, I know, as a as a dog lover, I'm sure you talk to your dogs all the time, because I know that as a dog lover, I talk to to the dogs in my life, and we talk to our dogs, and we feel that they respond to us. I'm curious, do you talk to your vines and feel that they respond to you.

I think the vines respond to care and I feel, you know, you know, on our d N DNA, we're not that far removed from vines there.

You'd be surprised how close we are.

And it's there's got to be more than we to share, than.

Than than we know or observe, you know.

I think we we benefit from a healthy plant, and they benefit and get energy from a healthy person, you know.

So there is a level of communication that goes on between it. As you walk through the vines and you've been here, you said, eleven years you've had these vines.

Oh no, we planted We produced our first wine in nineteen ninety six from these vines here, from this.

Vineyard across the street. Oh yeah, the Mari Low.

So ninety six. So we're talking about.

Planted in ninety two.

So we're talking about over thirty years. In that time, As you've seen the vineyard mature, and as you spend vintage after vintage, do you see more variation from year to year. Do you see a nice common thread that goes throughout? What have you noticed, because we know every vintage tells a different story, and you talked about how you want your wines to express that. But how much variation do you see?

There's a lot, you know, because our vns go from six hundred to you know, just over eight hundred feet in elevation. Some are south and west facing, some are north and east facing. The ones behind us on this toasted slope getting full facing the south, you know, that's you pick the Cabernet Sauvignon for that, and the ones that are facing north and east that goes toward the Pino.

So you're very it's very site specific.

So we're very careful about looking at the vineyard and deciding what goes where. Then you also have to be, you know, very proactive. I mean, the methods of farming have changed dramatically in those thirty years, and so you know, where they used to put water on for like full twenty four forty eight hour sets and then leave it off for a week or ten days. That's definitely not.

The way we do it now. You know, it's much shorter sets, more frequently.

You know, so you're so as farming improves, and you know, we're close partners with UC Davis and also with Fresno. We pay a lot of attention to to what people and companies are finding out and studying. So I think we're all just learning how to be the better stewards of the land and better better vineyard owners.

And as a result, do you feel that the variation every vintage gives you, is you know, less of a shock or or it's not as extreme or does mother nature take over and you have no say in that?

Well, some I mean, like they're like Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc. Those guys are so happy here. They are They just grow themselves. They put out the perfect canopy, they put out the perfect amount of fear after year, and they just practically grow themselves. We hardly do anything to them. But like peteeper it, Oh, it is really difficult grape to grow here. And as we're getting cooler, we're all having to switch it up because the late

And by the time you finish, it's time to bottle. It is it is we are.

I mean, then we're bottling like two weeks later the Sauvignon Bloc and you're like, holy.

Cow, are there any sort of signs or predictors that you look for that are going to tell you what a harvest is going to be?

Like, oh, it's you know.

It. There's always something that throws you for a loop, and you just you know, mother mother nature is a bitch of a business partner. Sometimes she's amazing and very cooperative, but it keeps you super humble, and you just have to pivot and watch and pivot and learn and have

So you have to you have to be on your toes and you can't really plan and predict. But I'm curious if there's one thing you plan. Do you have any sort of good luck rituals that you do at the start of harvest for yourself personally or maybe with the team.

Most of our rituals are at harvest, and so David and I and our family a lot of them fly in for this and spend some part of the red wine harvest with us.

But it's a big.

You know, the sorting in the vineyards, the sorting and the bins, and then the sorting on the shaker table. It's very critical for us for most of our wines and all the reds, and we always, you know, we start very early in the morning, so it's getting coffee and doughnuts or usually sometimes it's healthier.

But the donuts is key when you're key for me.

And then you know, Julia and I and sometimes our you know, our hospitality manager Mark McMillan or one of our daughters will bring in a lunch and it's typically Julian will always do Hungarian dishes, and so it's chicken, poppri cash or Hungarian stew. Yeah, and I always will do white chili, red chili. You know. We'll bring in oysters, believe it or not and barbecue them.

You know, it's just it's a food fest.

So we really enjoy the coming together at the vineyard table at lunch. And then then we typically on a good day with them, we're cleaning up on a hard day than we're still.

Going for a few more hours. Yeah.

I like that tradition, eating every day, big meals, big communal meals together.

And then you're drinking a lot of the unfinished wines like the Sovinyum blanc or the you know, the rose that are in the tank getting ready to be bottled in December. And it's a lot of fun, you know, to taste that wine that's it's developing and you know and see what's going on with it.

Well with all the joy that you have in your in your tone and in your eyes when you talk about that when you were little. What did you want to be when you grew up? Was this something was wine, something you always knew was kind of in your blood? Or did you have other visions? And you are also an artist, right, so what kind of what is your medium?

My medium for the most part is acrylic on canvas. I work with metallics as well. Leaf metallic leaf I do. I'm starting to get back into water colors. I love water colors. Water colors are just take a whole lot of investment. They take a lot more time, and you know, so they're they're they're a little less forgiving.

Have you ever thought about painting with wine. I that's a very good idea.

I paint things that I'm inspired by by wine. There's a piece behind you that is a modern piece. It's a circle and it's all kind of bubbly and has purple dark purple blue fuchias in it. And that is when you're looking down inside the fermentation tank and you're doing the you know, when when we put the pile, Yeah, the pipe down that you know, starts blowing bubbles gently and then it slowly just starts coming up like a volcano.

Yes, So back to what I asked, did you want to be an what would what did you want to be when you were little?

Was it art or happy?

Happy? That's good?

I you know, I'm not. I always thought I would be an architect, and that was my dream. My family was also architects that came from Switzerland.

But it just kind of life took a different turn, and.

You know, I went into business and you know, met my husband, and I don't know, you know, then started having the family, and at that point I could really start to take some time to paint and and we found ourselves going and we were both with Procter and Gamble in Cincinnati, and we just kept playing the We always thought if we won the lottery, we would, you know, move back west where our families, most of them were settled,

And yet you still ended up owning wineries.

We did. We did gallu offered by a husband a job when we were just about ready to be moved out with our two young daughters to Europe, and we decided to take this leap and do the wine the wine thing instead, and it just from there, you know, to here. It's been a marvelous journey. It's I wouldn't trade it for the world. I really love working in agriculture. I really love trying to make this product that brings so much joy.

I love that.

So I hate to ask, like, when you're not working, how do you spend your free time? Because clearly your work is your passion.

There's no free time.

But you know, every day I get to do something I love, which is either paint, walk in the vineyards, or be involved with the wines.

You know. So yeah, it's all it's all great. It's just a little it's just very crazy right now, you.

Know, And we do we we really love music and we have. During COVID, quite a few wineries went out of business and we had to pivot, and so we closed down our tasting room.

Which is you turret it over there.

It's now a dispensary, but we literally a dispensary.

We opened a dispensary over there.

But that okay.

So COVID hits and we lose ninety five percent of our business overnight, and you know, I looked at my husband. I said, we have got to move our tasting room outside. So and Dave said, well, we've we've got to have an indoor option when it's too rainy or hot. And so at that point, this was storing cases of wine. This barn, it's over one hundred years old. It was owned by Bing Crosby. Wow, and it's the only thing on the property that's still standing from when Being was

Wow. So they're doing the Twelfth Night. It's quite wonderful.

And Thursday night, well that will be starting and they perform usually Thursday through Sunday.

Amazing.

They're doing the Twelfth Night right now and there. It's a marvelous theater. But so when we were back to Covid and remodeling, we needed a place to store our cases, so we took over at lease from a winery that had to go out of business unfortunately, and it was just a big warehouse about a mile and a half from here, and we just kept looking at it thinking artists, you know, the music artists are struggling too. Wouldn't it

So we had.

You know, professional lighting, stage sound companies come in and design the set, you know, the room with us, and you'll see it tonight.

The sound is beautiful tonight.

We have Carolyn Wonderland who's an amazing blues artist and legendary.

And so we're we're in.

For a good show tonight. But you know, we have you know, a big brother in the holding company comes a couple of times a year.

You know, we're.

Lots of you know, from the Black Crows.

He comes and plays, you know, so lots of different genres and music and it's it's a blast.

I love it.

And then you serve them. You're almost famous. Sparkling Green or veil Leaner.

And we do, we do, and whatever else they want to drink. Usually they love the saviny and blanc and a red.

So when you look back at your life, you know, along the way, we have mentors, we have guides, we have teachers. Is there someone that gave you a piece of advice along the way that you carry with you that you try to live or work by.

Joe Gallo and did teach you?

Joe Gallo taught me to that the steps of the owner are the most important fertilizer in the vineyard, and so to you know, to always keep in touch with you know, never lose touch with your with your vineyard, and you know, and walk it every day and know it and be be a good steward of the land. And I hated my name being used for a long time because it's awkward lot sometimes, you know, a lot of the time. And Eleanor Coppola, Ellie who just passed away, and I miss her dearly.

She said to me.

Finally, she grabbed me one day and she says, just get over it. Your name's on the product, just get over it.

Well. And when people love wine, you know, it's a direct reflection.

Right, Yeah. I don't love the family of this. You know, it's a big family. I mean our family is quite small, but the team, Julian and his family, and you know, the managers and all the.

Supervisors and associates. You know, we all just become family.

So when you look back at your career, what would you say is one of your proudest accomplishments to date?

Living with integrity is always.

The thing I'm most proud of. That we.

Behave and function in a way that we hope is fair for everybody and brings everybody good. And that is what means the most. The greatest honor that was bestowed on me was being port of the White House for the one hundredth anniversary of the First Lady's Luncheon.

Oh how amazing it was.

It was with Michelle Obama and I took my girls out of college and flew them in and we entered this room and every waiter was holding our chardonnay, and you got to meet Michelle.

And it was exciting.

And the really amazing thing that happened during that is I lost my mom when she was fifty. She was very young, and so she never got to see me in this world, you know. And she had a very favorite song called the Wave and it's never played.

You never hear it. It's very rare. It's a Basinova song.

And when the first Lady's table came in was being seated, the Marine Corps band struck up the wall.

Oh my god. And you know, I just felt like she was with me, you know, like it was a sign.

And they didn't know that that was just when and.

I looked over my my youngest daughter, Amanda.

He like got in my face and she said, don't cry, don't cry, don't cry.

And of course I burst into tears.

What an amazing wow, wow, Wow. I ask another question. I'm gonna ask you another question that might make you cry, but this one.

Yeah you did it, Okay.

So complete this sentence for me. I'm going to give you a little reprieve before I ask you the question that'll make you cry, because I pretty much know your answer, I think, but we'll see if we can lighten it up. But complete the sentence for me. A table without wine is like.

A bath without water.

Beautiful, it's a very I can I can. Yeah, yeah, it's miseral. I can see that.

You know, wine is is just such a It's a beautiful.

Beverage and it can and it does enhance your meal it and I don't care if you're just eating you know, an iceberg. Let us with salid dressing, poard over it, over the sink. Or you're at the celebration of a wedding. The minute you open the bottle of wine, it signals a just a celebration of wow, I made it through the day. Or I'm here with all the people I love the most in the world and we're celebrating this

So when you're planning a romantic evening for you and your husband, and it's not just a I made it through the day, but it's a it's an intentional like plan. What sort of wines do you open that's set a more romantic mood as opposed to just an average day.

Well usually starts with bubbles and if you know, if.

There's several people involved in, you're able to open more than a bottle, you.

Know, I lately because it's summer too. I mean the again, the Sauvignon blanc, but.

We've talked a lot about that.

So the Cabernet franc is such a special wine.

It is a varietal that's not very well known, and it's a varietal we're all investing in heavily in Livermore because it grows well here.

Nobody's claimed it yet.

So for a romantic evening, Cabernet Cabernet frock after.

The bubbles, after the bubbles, after the bubbles, it is. It is such a gorgeous wine.

It's got a little bit more going on. I mean, it's like something like if you're on the spectrum and pinos at the lighter end of reds, and you know, we put Cabernet sauvignon. It's not the heaviest, but let's just go between that. You know, Cabernet franc is going in the middle, and it's well, you talk about those three wines. So the mother vine, or the two parents

From from the Cabernet franc.

And so Cabernet savignon has a lot to owe to these two parents, and the Cabernet franc is also well. I just I'm so excited for people to discover it more and more because it is a worthy varietal and should be on your dinner table because it is designed to go with food. It has more acidity, it has more layers, some spice. It's not going to overwhelm your meal with alcohol, with tannins.

With too much sugar, anything, you know what I mean.

It's just kind of the structural player in the background that kind of makes everything go.

Oh nice.

So we have a bottle of Cabernet frank sitting on the table, and there's an extra seat at the table next to you. Who from any walk of life, living or deceased. I mean, I'm gonna guess that you're gonna say your mom, which is a very fair answer, but I want to keep you from tearing up again. Who from any walk of life would you love to share a bottle of Darcy Kent, Cabernet franc or anyone the sauvenu Blancer, the sparkling juicy. So your mom gets one of them?

Oh my god, I need three. There's three people. My mom for one, because you know, she came from the wine making family and really shared.

The love of this, you know, with me.

But her grandparents, Christian and Rosa Rogue Suger from Switzerland.

They.

They of all the so much research I've done about them and been so fortunate to have been able to get a lot of research on them. And Rosa was just like this firecracker of a gal and just so much spirit. And all of our photos have so much life and mischievousness and just you know, gumption. And you know, you read all the reports my great grandfather wrote, and

He at the end of it, he says, you know.

Despite all the troubles with phloxa and everything we're dealing with, and you're dealing with, the art of the vine is such a noble profession.

Wow, And you know, It's just.

Things like that, little surprises all the time where you know, your ancestors kind of come calling.

So we just need a table full of your ancestors to drink the wine with you.

Oh I love that, you know. I got the chance.

Fox News many about ten years ago called me up from Kansas City and said, we're doing these little blurbs, you know, like thirty second blurb. We need to find out about your family winery. And so I gave them all the information and they did the spot and.

It came up.

And you know, I haven't been on the property since I was a child, and so I said, can you put me in touch with the you know, the guy of the property.

And he's like, yeah, he wants to talk to you too.

So I got on the phone with him and we're chatting away. And one of the stories my mom always shared with me was, I wish you could have seen the seller. You know, my you know, your great great grandfather did all the murals on the wall to make it feel like you're, you know, you're in a ca a room in the cellar, but it was he died falling down the steps into the cellar, and so did one of his daughters. So they sealed it up and nobody ever went in it again, and so was closed

Said yeah, it's my man cake. And I burst out.

Crying and I'm like, can I come, can I come see it? So, you know, of course, then Fox News had to get involved and it became part two and part three as we but the murals are still the murals are still still there, and he opened it all up and it's just gorgeous and it was incredible to be able to go spend time there again.

He found wine in there was there wine.

Well, the guy who sold the property to him was the gentleman who bought it from my grandparents, and he still had wine bottles. They were emptied, but he brought bottles and gave them to me.

So he came.

So that was like part three.

Wow. But you know, and then I.

Found so many you know, friends of those of my parents who have pictures and I mean.

Of my great great grandparents. So it's been a blessing.

Wow, so many stories and so much history. You don't get that a lot necessarily here in California. It's different when you talk to winemakers in Europe who have seven eight generations. But I'm curious. We're going to play our little game at the end, which you've been warned about about pairing wine with music, and we're gonna pair with the wines you've been talking about, because I mean, they

Pazzoni, Pino Noir, Darcy Kensilvanian Blanc, and my Cabernet Frank probably, but maybe bubbles. I might have to go with that blancdon Noir that we're releasing. But that baby, you know, it's it's like the baby hasn't been born yet, and I want to see what that baby's going to develop into.

But I'm very excited about it.

Okay, so let's come back to the bubbles that have been born you're gruner velt Leiner almost famous method Champannois. Tell me, tell me the music that it makes you think of.

It makes me think of going to California by led Zeppelin. It is Julian Halas, our winemaker and I. Both of our families started on grunervelt Leaner vineyards, and when we started working together, we looked for grunervelt Leiner and found it and the Rava family in Monterey was planting it and making wine from it. So we produced it under the Darcy label, and it's it just it. We always thought. It was actually my daughter Caitlin, who was like, we got to do bubbles with this, you know, how do

We're not set up to be a bubble house.

And she's like, yes, but she would say it every single year. So finally we gave in about like six seven, I.

Don't know, COVID took all the years away.

Before COVID we got into the bubbles with making griner.

Velt Lee and like you said, you're soon going to have the facility, so you will be a bubble house. Before you know it, they are.

Going to be a bubble house. And we're really excited.

About being a bubble house, having bubbles.

As part of our repertoire. But this song is leaving.

We're leaving and coming to California and you know, looking for that girl with flowers in her hair and playing the guitar by the you know, and for us it was the girl with flowers in her hair was that perfect varietal. And the champagne is just taking it to the next level, you know, doing it with bubbles. It's doing something with an old mine we're both very familiar with and doing something fresh and bubbly with it.

I love it. So your sauvignon blanc that you've been talking about, what song does that make me think of?

That song makes me think of the Beatles. Here comes the sun and we bottle it, you know, in the winter and when we're tired of winter and the rain and the gray skies and we're.

When you know, we.

Almost look forward to a bottle breaking, you know, while we're bottling, because it will perfume you know, the the entire room and just make it feel like sunshine is just poured in, you know.

It is it is sunshine in a glass.

And you know when you when.

You hear that song, here comes the sun do do do?

Do? You know?

And it's all right, you know, that's that's you know, you just feel that when we're bottling it, it just promises that the winner.

Will will end and we'll be back to summer.

I love it. And of course your Cabernet Frank.

Cabernet Frank to me is Christy McVie, and it's everywhere, and she is such a was. I'm sorry, I'm so sad she's gone because I just love her music and I think they're just having this enormous renaissance right now.

But she she was, She's.

Such a backbone to Fleetwood Mac and you just kind of never really notice it, you know, until she finally does sing on her own, and when she does, everybody's so blown away. And and this song to me just represents the best of her and and that she you know, and that's it's everywhere, and that's what I feel about Cat Pronk. It's everywhere, but nobody really knows that it's there, you know. And but I'm hoping they'll discover it and just fall in love with it, you know, the way you have.

Yeah, I just loved I grew up on that band.

I love that band.

Well, Darcy, It's been such a pleasure talking with you, and I have one more question, because we've been talking forever, and I'm sure you have so many more stories, and we could go on and on because it's so I mean, I love I love your family stories.

They're great.

But I'm curious what wine making region in the world is the top of your bucket list to explore.

I've had the chance to explore so many, you know. I love the alt age. I love I'll sauce, you know. I love Portugal. Tend to like really hilly regions. I haven't done Champagne, and I would like to do that. I've been all over Italy and I'd go back to Italy in a heartbeat. I just love the way they live life and celebrate with wine. I love the ceremony of cleaning the glass, you know, and seasoning it. The way they really look at you at each other when you toast, you know. I just I learned to live

I think you should.

Well, I think you should plan a trip to Champagne. I think you should go and touch those chalk soils and drink the champagne. But for somebody listening who might want to come to Darcy Kent and experience Darcy Kent, how can they find you? Where can they find you? And what can they experience when they come here? You talked a little bit about it, about the Shakespeare, about the music, the indoor or the outdoor your art. Is there anything else to add to that?

Oh?

My? You know the club events are so much fun. They're all about music and.

You know, experiencing the food with the wine, it's a it's a great celebration the the wines. We ship almost everywhere that you can ship, and we're we're starting to to get out there a little bit as far as you know, retailers.

But in terms of coming here, for coming here, Livermore Valley is.

Just so accessible to the San Francisco Bay area as well as Oakland and San Jose and Sacramento. We get a lot of travelers who are are spending time going to the other wine regions. We're a lot more accessible. We're you know, forty five minutes from from the furthest airport, and we're it's always sunny and the weather is usually just so beautiful and with the temperature drops, make sure

You're going to have gorgeous views.

You're gonna find people who are of the soil and you know, and really belong here. You're going to get such a sense of this great wine country.

Well, I think you should come. Come and check out Darcy Kent. Beautiful views, enjoy indoor outdoor music, everything, And Darcy, thank you so much for joining us today.

Appreciate that.

And I'm excited to taste some more of your wines.

Thank you. I'm really excited to share them with you. Cheers, cheers.

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