Of all the cities in the Bay, Livermore and its wine country may be the one most conducive to frequent check ins. There’s plenty that’s new or just popping there in 2024, from a flower-wine tasting room to e-cycling the countryside to dining at an elevated raw bar with a killer sake selection.
Given Livermore can get as hot as the surface of the sun, even during fall, you might start a day trip gathering provisions so you don’t wither down to nothing. A good place for caffeinated beverages is Story Coffee, a local favorite with intriguing mix-ins. The cafe has a bucking bronco on the sign – Livermore loves its Western vibes – and a drink called Rodeo Water that’s Mexican Coke mixed with cold brew and whiskey syrup. (Don’t worry, teetotalers, they cook off all the alcohol.) The lattes have farmland flavors like a cardamom-lavender-wildflower honey and, right now, a harvest chai with pumpkin cold foam.
Next door is The Cheese Parlor, run by Brandon Wood, a self-professed “punk-rock kid turned professional cheesemonger.” (Meant seriously: He’s a certified cheese professional, with a certificate from the American Cheese Society.) The charming shop has some of the best cold sandwiches in town – available Tuesday to Friday – that change every week, like a Boats and Goats hoagie with Laura Chenel chèvre, capocollo, arugula and pickled goathorn peppers. On weekends, turophiles can buy picnicking supplies including cold beer and local wine – including local brands like Blindwood Cider and 3 Steves Winery – plus boxes of the monger’s favorite cheeses and charcuterie.
There are a couple of uniquely chill ways to explore the area’s natural beauty. Los Vaqueros Reservoir is a 1,900-acre lake north of town surrounded by protected watershed property and trails for hiking, cycling and horse riding. It’s a steep and rugged, sun-washed territory inhabited with wildlife from snakes to kit foxes to golden eagles – and now regularly, bald eagles, which show up in the winter.
The reservoir is stocked with trout, largemouth bass, stripers and catfish. You can rent electric boats to fish for them from the Los Vaqueros Marina on the lake’s south side. If you’re not into fishing, just take one of these eco-friendly vessels out — a 16-footer ($50 for a half-day) that seats four, perhaps, or a pontoon boat ($115) that seats eight — and putter around the scenic waters to your heart’s content. (Rentals are first-come-first-serve and are sometimes canceled in windy weather, so call ahead at 925-371-2628.)
Another electric excursion: Exploring Livermore Valley’s well-regarded wineries on a self-guided e-bike tour. The Pedego Electric Bikes rents single and tandem bikes ($70 and up) that make you feel healthy and planet-friendly, while also eliminating the nuisance of pedaling up hills. Screenshot a map of local wineries – or just grab one at Pedego — hop on your electric steed and enjoy a bit of adventure.
Jared and Kate Lucky ride a tandem electric bicycle while visiting wineries in the Livermore Valley. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
If you’re unsure what to hit up, the Livermore Valley Winegrowers Association offers a planning tool where you can build your own itinerary (lvwine.org/itinerary-planner.php). Just to throw out some options, among the 201 medals given to Livermore wineries in the 2024 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition there’s Las Positas Vineyards (for verdelho), Retzlaff (for cab sauv and dry rose) and Darcie Kent Estate Winery (for chardonnay and petit verdot). Note that if you’re planning on imbibing on a tandem bike, the person in front does all the steering and might want to take it easy with the ol’ vino.
For something unexpected in Livermore’s ever-evolving wine realm, head back to the city to the recently opened Free Range Flower Winery tasting room. Tucked away in an industrial-parkish neighborhood of breweries and wine-making facilities, this boutique operation offers still and sparkling flights made from roses, marigolds and other edible flowers. It’s one of perhaps only a half-dozen flower wineries in the United States, and it’s run by Aaliyah Nitoto, one of only a handful of Black winemakers in Northern California.
Free Range Flower Winery founder and winemaker Aaliyah Nitoto in the tasting room in Livermore, Calif., on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
The wines’ spectacular colors might lead you to expect something syrupy or overbearing, but the opposite is the case. It can drink dry and slightly sour, like natural wine, with notes of herbs, butter, piquant fruit and yeasty honeysuckle.
“The taste of flower wine can be something really familiar, like our rose-hibiscus, which tends to be fruitier with natural tannins that appear in the petals. It’s reminiscent of what people would get from a light red sangiovese or a pinot noir,” says Nitoto. “Or it can range from something minerally with a lot of herbaceousness, all the way to flavors that are really spectacular and like nothing a person’s ever tasted before.”
The tasting room’s contemplative garden area, with shade trees and low-key music, is an excellent oasis to pause and reflect on these new tastes. Well, not exactly new: Flower wine was made as far back as Mesopotamia, primarily by female fermenters, and during the Han Dynasty with chrysanthemum wine, a tradition that’s still celebrated on Chinese festival days. But it has new relevance today on our ever-warming planet.
In 2021, Cosmopolitan gave Free Range a sustainability award for its lavender wine, which the magazine said was like the “fanciest lemonade you ever drank married your favorite white wine.”
“I think it’s the future of wine,” says Nitoto. “It doesn’t use as much water to make flowers as it does fruit. Fruit takes an enormous amount of water, specifically grapes. A lot of the flowers I’m using are drought-resistant.”
Free Range Flower Winery’s wines, “Marigold,” left, is made from organic marigold flowers and “RoseHybiscus” is made from organic rose and hibiscus flowers. Photographed in Livermore, Calif., on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
Time for dinner? An exciting newcomer to Livermore’s dining scene is Cured: Fish Bar, run by beverage-industry vet Frances Catano and sushi chef Joe Tomaszak. The two wanted to bring an elevated raw bar on the same level as San Francisco’s high-end joints to the East Bay, and they have the resumes for it: He used to work at hip sushi joint Robin, and she has a deep knowledge of sake. Expect to see fun, funky sakes like Mantensei “Kinoko” with notes of “Swiss cheese and baked potato” and Wakaze “The Classic” made with French Camargue rice.
Start with a plate of Miyagi oysters from Tomales Bay or Lil’ Skookums from Washington with shiso-ponzu mignonette, perhaps some Wingen Bakery bread with dashi butter. Follow up with line-caught halibut ($19) cured in kelp for a day and served simply with lemon and Happy Acre Farms EVOO, or for something spicier, the Colossal Shrimp Cocktail ($25).
Cured: Fish Bar co-owner Joe Tomaszak brings Anchovy toast with Wingen semolina, tomato “butter,” celery and scallion, on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Livermore, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
Small bites are the name of the game, and they arrive like intricately constructed sculptures. The uni toast ($25) combines lobes of briny urchin with green-garlic confit and myoga atop startlingly purple milk bread. Bluefin tuna crudo with roasted Anaheim chile and pickled shallot doesn’t need any help to be an umami bomb, but do yourself a favor and “cowboy up” for a few bucks extra to add smoky A5 wagyu drippings ($20-$25).
A couple of warm plates are great to finish, either the Dad’s Red Potatoes with Cajun spices and optional cold-smoked salmon roe ($12-$17) or the Roasty Toasty Mushrooms ($16) that mixes tenderly cooked Monterey maitakes with miso butter and melty egg yolk. For dessert, there are warm chocolate-chip cookies with milk – who can say no to that?
Anchovy toast with Wingen semolina, tomato “butter,” celery and scallion at Cured: Fish Bar on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024, in Livermore, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
Winding down an evening in Livermore is easy to do at the Almost Famous Wine Company, a tasting room and concert venue that opened in 2022. Settle in with a glass of local wine, then tap your toes to live music ranging from Janis Joplin’s old band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, to Australian roots rocker Kara Grainger and a tribute act to Amy Winehouse. Cheers!
If You Go:
Story Coffee: Opens at 6 a.m. weekdays and 7 a.m. weekends at 124 Maple St., Livermore; storycoffee.co.The Cheese Parlor: Opens at 11 a.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 10 a.m. Sunday at 158 Maple St., Livermore; thecheeseparlor.com.Pedego Electric Bikes: Open Wednesday-Sunday at 1911A Second St., Livermore; pedegoelectricbikes.com/dealers/livermoreLos Vaqueros Marina: South entrance at 9990 Los Vaqueros Road, Byron; ccwater.com/194/feesFree Range Flower Winery: Opens at 1 p.m. Friday-Sunday at 2111 Research Drive, Suite 6, Livermore; freerangeflowerwinery.com.Cured: Fish Bar: Opens at 5 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and 4 p.m. Friday-Saturday at 136 Maple St., Livermore; curedfishbar.com.Almost Famous Wine Company: 2271D S. Vasco Road, Unit D, Livermore; show tickets available at almostfamous.wine.