LIVERMORE — Concannon Vineyard, a historic winery in the East Bay’s pastoral Livermore Valley, has been bought by an alliance of Bay Area vintners, in a deal that tops $15 million.
Lemmons Family Vineyards and Darcie Kent Winery teamed up to buy the 230-acre Concannon site, documents on file with the Alameda County Recorder’s Office show.
The buyers paid $17.9 million for the vineyard, according to a deed that was filed on Nov. 26.
Concannon Vineyard was founded in 1883 and the new owners see their deal as a way to return the historic winery complex to its roots.
The Wine Group sold Concannon to Lemmons Family Vineyards and the Darcie Kent Winery alliance, the property records show. The Wine Group had owned Concannon Vineyard since 2004.
“We will be phasing out the international bottling operations and concentrate on re-planting the vineyards to the historic grape varietals, such as Cab Franc and Sauvignon Blanc, that made Livermore famous in the 1880s,” Tom and Paige Lemmons said in a joint statement.
Lemmons Family Vineyards intends to preserve what the Lemmons call the “pioneering efforts” that Concannon has pursued with Cabernet Sauvignon and Petite Sirah.
The Lemmons Family and Darcie Kent aim to create a dramatic new mission for part of the Concannon Vineyard in a way that will make the Livermore Valley even more of a destination than it is at present.
“(We) hope to repurpose the 60,000-square-foot bottling pavilion as the long-awaited Livermore Valley Wine Country Center to provide high-quality maker space for small family wineries and the visitor-attracting amenities that were envisioned when the Agricultural Preserve was created in 1991 but are still missing,” the Lemmons said. Tom and Paige Lemmons are lifelong residents of Livermore.
While these efforts are underway, the new owners intend to preserve the current ambiance of the tasting room at Concannon.
“We want to thank The Wine Group for their beautiful restoration of the historic redwood winery that will enable us to build on their success,” said David and Darcie Kent, the owners of Darcie Kent Winery.
The new owners will retain the current Concannon hospitality team.
“It is our goal to ensure that what guests loved about the Concannon tasting room experience will be preserved under new ownership,” the Kents said in their joint statement.
Darcie Kent Winery plans to move its second winery, Almost Famous Wine Co., to the former The Wine Group headquarters building by mid-2025.
The new owners intend to install state-of-the-art equipment to produce and bottle premium sparkling wines.
The Lemmons Family and Darcie Kent alliance hope to help smaller local winegrowers in the coming years.
“To better serve our neighbors, we hope to provide much-needed custom crush and storage capacity to local winegrowers by next harvest,” the Kents said.
Colliers International, a commercial real estate firm, and Larson Lindenau Law Group arranged the property purchase.
“We plan to meet with City and Tri-Valley Conservancy staff soon and discuss how best to proceed,” said John Godkin, a Livermore-based consultant. “This will be an exciting new chapter for this cornerstone brand.”