A Joyful Time for Concannon Vineyard

PRLog (Press Release) - Dec 07, 2007 -
Livermore, CA – Concannon Vineyard is known for many wine industry contributions:

*   1883 – Became the First Irish American winemaking family to establish a vineyard and winery in California.  Our estate winery sits upon a 600 foot deep gravel bed – a terrior unique to Concannon in California
*   1890s, Concannon shipped millions of wine cuttings to Mexico
*   1950 – Hired Katherine Vajda as the first professional female winemaker, who was not part of its family
*   1964 – Varietally labeled the first Petite Sirah
*   1970’s – Concannon’s popular Cabernet Clones 7 and 8 planted most of the California wine industry to Cabernet, most notably in Napa and Sonoma valleys
*   1985 – Produced and trademarked a Bordeaux-style blend known as Assemblage®
*   2002 – Has led the way as a major contributing sponsor of PS I Love You, the Petite Sirah advocacy organization
*   2006 – Successfully launched Concannon Limited Release wines
*   2006 – Released a coffee table book with wine industry, historian Tim Patterson documenting Jim Concannon’s memoirs, and shown through the famous and prolific lens of Andy Katz, Concannon The First One Hundred And Twenty Five Years
*   2007 – Completing final touches on our 50,000 sq. ft. barrel, cask and bottling annex in December 2007 just feet from the original winery in Livermore
*   Coming for our 125 Year Anniversary in 2008 – A new 400 ton ultra-premium “micro-winery” for small lot estate wines in time for our historic 2008 harvest

As Concannon looks back over the last 124 years, it’s the success of this past year however, that most strikes it as having arrived, as evidenced by all of its 2007 gold medals and prestigious awards:

2007 Riverside International
*   VALUE WINERY OF THE YEAR: 2004 Sauvignon Blanc, Selected Vineyards, Central Coast
*   BEST OF CLASS: 2004 Stampmaker’s® Red, Limited Release
*   GOLD   2004 Stampmaker’s® Red, Limited Release   2003 Petite Sirah, Limited Release, Central Coast
*   GOLD   2005 Chardonnay, Reserve

2007 Hilton Head
*   BEST VALUE WHITE WINE : 2005 Pinot Grigio, Limited Release  
*   GOLD   2005 Pinto Grigio, Limited Release, Central Coast
*   GOLD   2004 Petite Sirah, Limited Release, Central Coast

2007 San Francisco Chronicle
*   GOLD   2004 Petite Sirah, Limited Release, Central Coast
*   GOLD   2005 Sauvignon Blanc, Selected Vineyards, Central Coast
*   GOLD   2003 Merlot, Reserve, Livermore Valley

Thank you for the part you contributed in 2007. We appreciate all the wine industry has done to support Concannon Vineyard. With so much to its credit, Concannon Vineyard now realizes that not only has it arrived, but all of this gold also points to its very bright future in the next 125 years to come!