Picazo Vineyards
About
We produce dark, serious Merlot from our small estate vineyard in the Livermore Valley, one of California's most historic and picturesque wine regions. It's offered proof that our benchland site overlooking the valley was capable of producing distinctive and exceptional wine. As you know, our philosophy is to grow the highest quality fruit from our vineyard and produce world class wine from our estate. It is our great pleasure to share this expression from PICAZO Vineyards with family and friends. In vino, salute, felicita', vita ed amore!
Location Description
Located in the heart of Livermore, California
Features
- Handcrafted wines.
Additional Information
- Meeting / Conference Facilities:
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- Picnic Facilities:
- Dog Friendly:
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- Wine Tasting:
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Winemaker
“You can do some fantastic winemaking if you just do the right thing at the right time,” says Mark Clarin. He has been doing quite a few right things at the right times in the course of his winemaking career in Livermore Valley.
First of all, Mark knows this valley: he has lived here almost all his life and has been a fixture in the valley’s wine industry for most of his working life His first wine job was driving a tractor in the vineyards and a forklift in the cellars at Wente Vineyards during the harvest of 1979. (It’s a nice touch that he started out here, since he remembers as a child that his parents enjoyed drinking Wente’s Grey Riesling.) He stayed on as a cellar worker, learning everything about the work flow, logistics and process of making wine.
Mark’s hard work and innate abilities earned him the title of Cellar Master in 1989. With this new responsibility for wine quality, not just work flow, Mark realized he needed to understand all the elements of the winemaking processes. He immersed himself in enology classes at UCD (University of California at Davis, the state’s most famous school for winemakers), joined the industry’s professional education group known as ASEV (American Society of Enology and Viticulture), and traveled to France to visit the great wine houses of Bordeaux and Burgundy.
In 2003, fully bitten by the wine bug (no relation to phylloxera), Mark became Winemaker for Wente’s Tamas Estates, a label specializing in Italian grape varieties.
Mark’s sole departure from his Livermore Valley roots came in 2004, when Randall Grahm of Bonny Doon Vineyards asked Mark to take a senior management position for his famous company. It was a great experience until the business division Mark managed was sold.
Mark thought he would like to return to Livermore Valley, perhaps as a consulting enologist for some of the wineries there. As he was weighing his options and considering buying a winery himself, a friend tipped him off to the possibility of a winemaking position for a newly-created winery called Picazo Vineyards.
This opportunity seemed like karma to Mark: he was determined to make only fine red Bordeaux wine and so were the Picazos. He knew that Livermore Valley had the potential to produce grapes worthy of critical acclaim and the Picazos had these grapes. Mark had exceptional winemaking talent and skill and the Picazos had the marketing and business background to complement his abilities. Most important, all three had the mutual respect and liking that is crucial to the success of a business enterprise.
Since signing on, Mark has made sure that PICAZO’S winemaking and farming protocols are tailored to capture the character and quality of this historic appellation and the PICAZO'S unique vineyard site.
History
We assumed we would be content to continue having the grapes farmed by some of the regional wineries, but during the first growing season in our new home, we realized that the mature 14-acre Merlot vineyard surrounding it was capable of producing outstanding, even world-class fruit. Both of us have always had the philosophy that you start with a good thing and make it into the best possible. We thought the way to create the best from our vineyard would be to make wine ourselves and bottle it under our own name.
Our first vintage, in 2004, consisted of a whopping 64 cases of Merlot. It was deep, rich and complex, and it excited us enough to give us confidence to move forward with our project of establishing a bonded winery. We knew we would need a dedicated winemaker to bring out the best our vineyard has to offer.
Through a mutual friend, we were fortunate to find Mark Clarin, a Livermore Valley wine making veteran whose first love in wine, like ours, is red Bordeaux. Mark was looking for an opportunity to use his knowledge and experience to produce small-lot, hand-crafted wines to prove something he has always believed, that Livermore Valley is capable of producing Bordeaux varietal wines to rival the best from Napa and Sonoma.
The three of us came to a meeting of the minds almost immediately. It seemed like karma that we had found a set of conditions of time, place and people that clearly identified an irresistible opportunity to create a business that spoke to our hearts as well as to our heads. With additional harvests behind us now, we are confident that PICAZO Merlot is the great wine we believed it could be.
The Team
Jose and Pam Picazo immediately fell in love with their exquisite Italian villa-style home in the foothills of Livermore Valley. Surrounded by a Mediterranean-like environment, who wouldn’t fall in love amid olive trees, purple-flowering rosemary and lavender bushes atop undulating hills? First, the Picazo’s planned on applying their agricultural roots to farm the 14 acres of pristinely planted Merlot vines surrounding their home and selling off the grapes to large regional producers. Creating a wine of their own was not Jose and Pam’s original intent yet with a passion for the earth and desire for quality they decided to hold back a portion of the vineyard’s fruit and bottle it under the family name.
Both Jose and Pam have a history of doing things well. Their philosophy is to learn everything possible about the subject at hand.
Pam forged her career as a pioneer in customer advocacy in the automotive industry, acting as a mediator between manufacturer, dealer and car buyer. She has also been an active and dedicated fund-raiser for non-profits in Silicon Valley. A problem solver, trouble shooter and creative solution provider, Pam brings these skills to her new enterprise of Picazo Vineyards.
“With my Italian heritage,” says Pam, “I’ve always been attracted to good wine and good food in a setting that embraces family and friends. Creating our own winery is an ultimate expression of sharing the pleasures of fine wine.”
Jose is a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who has been immersed in electronics technology since his high school days. Beginning with computer repair and consulting, he leaped into design, manufacture and sales of network equipment, just in time to catch the wave that became the Internet. He has developed and sold several successful companies and is currently founder, president and CEO of Iconix, an e-mail fraud solution software company.
“High technology changes so quickly,” says Jose, “that I never thought it made sense to look at the business in terms of 10-year plans. I look at the current situation and when all the necessary elements are available, you can create a new product. That’s how everything came together for our winery – the right vineyard location and grape variety, Pam’s capability and commitment, and Mark Clarin’s winemaking and viticultural skills and experience. My job is to keep us focused on quality, to make sure we are producing the very best red Bordeaux wines possible.”