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Every wine has a story behind its label. The artwork on labels of Darcie Kent Vineyards’ wines depicts the vintner’s Livermore Valley estate. Some labels, such as those on Cupcake Vineyards’ new wine, Love is Wine Chardonnay, hook directly into streaming show culture. Simple wine labels like the one displaying “Josh” in large, fancy cursive become social media memes.
In January the internet gushed with posts about Napa’s Josh Cellars after an X (Twitter) user encouraged his followers to drink “Josh’s juice.” Josh bloomed into a synonym for wine, as in, “Pass the Josh.” The humorous contrast between the regular guy name and the elegant script piqued interest for the top-selling wine.
Meanwhile in January, I fell into the deep well of Tuscan wine history. Chianti Classico Gran Selezione UGA, anyone? My article highlighted this new, top-level designation. But beyond wine aficionados, who cares about wines from 11 villages with a new quality designation on their complex labels?
After swimming in Italian wine terms, I eagerly turned to two Livermore Valley wineries for wine label stories.
In 1883 Darcie Kent’s family opened the 62nd bonded winery in the U.S. Kent’s great-grandfather drew the label for the winery which lasted for many decades. An artist herself, Darcie and her husband David Kent, a wine industry professional, launched Darcie Kent Vineyards in 1996.
Located on Tesla Ave., the winery is known for Darcie’s artwork on the labels and her paintings on the walls. The labels for the Bordeaux varietal wines such as Stone Patch Cabernet Sauvignon are positioned vertically on the bottle. The painting reflects the sunny advantage of their higher elevation vineyards. The swirling blue lines draw attention to the afternoon Livermore Valley winds which augur cool nights to develop the wine’s flavor profiles.
Darcie’s brightly hued art is also featured on the horizontal wine labels from the leased Livermore land they farm such as Sauvignon Blanc from Triska vineyard.
As production grew and their daughters Kailyn and Amanda began working with them, the Kents opened Almost Famous as a second tasting room on S. Vasco Road in 2021 with the large backroom evolving into a popular music venue. The family also uses the tasting room as a wine incubator. Kailyn Kent helped design the newer Pistachio Lane series of wines in the $30 range, about half the price of Darice Kent wines.
I visited the winery to peruse newer wines such as Firepit, a popular red blend, and the Wine Without Borders series of not-so-common varietals where letters run over the top edge of the label.
I liked the new label for top-of-the-line Choreography, a red blend which depicts two vines “dancing” together; the label has won an industry packaging award. A fan of Cabernet Franc wine, I was pleased to find a new one, The Strong Silent One, with a lightly sketched, line drawing of a non-binary face which could be male or female.
Following the trend for modern, sleek designs, new Pistachio Lane labels show simplified script, less art and more white space but continue to highlight the path near their vineyards with its stand of pistachio trees. A new line of wines to launch in June is shortened to “Darcie.”
Switching wine lanes, the labels for Concannon Vineyard, founded in 1883, follow a traditional pattern and evoke the stately arches at the winery’s entrance also on Tesla Road.
In January, I learned that Cupcake Vineyards, a brand in the same wine company that owns higher-end Concannon, would announce their Love is Wine Chardonnay on February 14th in conjunction with Series 6 of the Netflix “Love is Blind” streaming series.
Two things to know: The theme of the Netflix series is whether you can fall in love before meeting someone by talking to them from enclosed pods. In other words, is love blind? Now the question is, is wine love?
Secondly, Cupcake and Concannon Vineyard are both in the portfolio of The Wine Group, the third largest wine company in the U.S. Targeted to a younger demographic, Cupcake Chardonnay landed on supermarket shelves with an easy-to-read label in 2008, a year after the launch of Josh. With 22 Cupcake wines plus five Lighthearted low-calorie wines, Cupcake is the largest premium wine brand by volume ($8 to $11) in the U.S. with the back label stating, “vinified and bottled in Livermore and Ripon, CA.”
Mirroring the business trend to co-brand products, the prominently displayed metallic gold label on the striking gold bottle of Love is Wine Chardonnay links directly to the ubiquitous gold, opaque wine glasses seen on “Love is Blind.” Netflix and Cupcake teased the new season with alumni sipping Love is Wine in golden goblets. Wine is Love Chardonnay costs about $3 more than Cupcake Chardonnay.
When asked about the collaboration on the wine’s flavor profile, Collin Cooley, The Wine Group’s senior director of marketing for premium wines, noted that “the taste cues of the rich buttery Chardonnay are a perfect pairing for the show.”
While Safeway shopping recently, I saw the distinctive Wine is Love Chardonnay and then noticed a new Josh wine—a gold-colored bottle with the Josh script and “Buttery Chardonnay” in prominent type below.
I may head back for The Strong, Silent Type Cabernet Franc at Darcie Kent Vineyards’ Bing’s Barn tasting room. Yes, Bing Crosby once owned the Darcie Kent property. Crosby wasn’t the silent type, but who knows— if he knew about the many new Livermore Valley wines, he might have exclaimed, “That’s lovely” and sung “C’est Magnifique, Taking a Chance on Love.”
