Page Mill Winery

Dane Stark, owner and winemaker at Page Mill, doesn’t remember a time when the wine business wasn’t part of his life. Dane was just eight when his father Dick quit his job in high tech and dug a hole under the house so he could make wine. Growing up with a father as a winemaker meant that Dane’s childhood was a little different than most. “Before we could go play baseball on Saturday, we had to finish bottling. You know, slave labor.” he laughs. The work wasn’t really a problem. Some of Dane’s fondest childhood memories come from early mornings out in the vineyards. Picking at those twilight hours, out amongst the grapevines, with a ribbon of purple stretching across the sky, are moments that Dane has held onto. All the lessons he learned from his father have stayed with him, too. They’ve kept him going for over twenty harvests now, through all the twists and turns of the business.  

One of those twists was relocating from the Santa Cruz Mountains to Page Mill’s present site in Livermore. Back in 2004, as Dane puts it, “I couldn’t afford to inherent the winery’s old site. It became a Silicon Valley address, and I was making a winemaker’s living.” He looked all over California for a new site in places like Paso Robles, Amador County, and Sonoma County, but he settled on Livermore. His decision had its critics, but as Dane will tell anyone, he still believes that the Livermore Valley was the best alternative to where he was. What excites him most about the area is that the community has placed a high value on supporting wineries. In 1996, they passed an urban growth boundary that dedicated all the land south of its mark for use by wineries. That dedication to the industry has paid off as the number of wineries in the valley has doubled since Page Mill’s arrival. Dane is also thoroughly convinced of the potential quality of Livermore Valley wine. When he first arrived, he readily admits that most of Page Mill’s wines were made from fruit purchased from outside the region. After a few years of getting to know the valley and sorting through what growers and vineyards best matched his style, Dane has converted over to almost entirely local grapes. His 2010 releases will be 95% Livermore Valley fruit.  

 Read Reviews of Page Mill’s wine here. 

Vineyards at Page Mill

While Dane has total faith in Livermore’s potential as a wine region, he also understands that the valley as a whole has some growing and learning to do. Wente and Concannon have a long history of winemaking, but most of the wineries in the valley are little guys who are just getting into the business. “The wine business is one driven by passion, and with all the growth, just by virtue of the numbers, we’re bound to have some hits and some misses,” Dane explains. In Europe, they’ve had thousands of years to figure out where to grow grapes and learn how to make wine reach its full potential. In Napa, they had a few hundred to do the same. Livermore needs time to figure out how to match what they are getting from the earth with the winemakers’ individual styles. “It’s a slower learning curve with wine. It’s not like being a chef where you make the same chicken dish ten times a night. We only get one chance a year.”   

Even with a longer learning curve, Dane is very optimistic about the future. He thinks that in five years time, the number of great wines will far outnumber the misses in the valley. Winemaker meetings, where they sit around and discuss what’s working and not working, are making a great difference. The region is getting up to speed and pushing towards the level of focus needed to bring the attention and notoriety to the valley that it deserves. For Page Mill specifically, with over twenty harvests under his belt and his growing familiarity and knowledge of the Livermore Valley, Dane says he looks forward to making the wine he knows he can. “I’ve been accused of being an artist that’s never satisfied, but I look forward to the day when I can take that sip of wine and go, perfect.” Page Mill and the Livermore Valley as a whole are just coming into their own. Once everything comes together, Dane and others around the valley just might be able to share the wine they’ve been dreaming about.  

 
Read Reviews of Page Mill’s wine here.