Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/580744
92 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015 decisions based on real-time data. "This is a company that's run by a guy I went to grad school with," Wente said. "He has one of the best online user interfaces for vineyards, which includes all weather data as well as sap flow sensors that give me really amazing insight into how the vines are using water throughout their diurnal cycle." Wente has also invested in technology that closely monitors fermentation. "We have a really awesome digital interface. Every day I can look at temperature, Brix, free and total anthocyanins. It allows us to make split-second decisions during crucial periods of fermentation when things are changing quickly." But Wente insisted that such practices would be far less effective if not for the decades of familiarity his family enjoys with their Livermore land. The Wentes' deep well of accrued wisdom allowed them to successfully revitalize a historic vineyard near their estate. Drawing from the Well In 1990, Philip Wente, Karl's uncle, decided to resurrect Murrieta's Well, a historic property with a 19th-century gravity-flow winery. It had been bought in the 1930s by Karl's great-grandfather, Ernest. "But when I was young, the winery was just used for storage," Wente recalled. "We were not doing justice to the property or the vineyards." Philip Wente formed a partnership with widely respected Chilean-born winemaker and consultant Sergio Traverso, who was already familiar with the area—he had been the head winemaker at nearby Concannon Vineyard for nine years. "It was my uncle's brainchild and baby," Wente recalled. It was also a way to keep Traverso in the valley. "He had left Concannon and was going to leave the area. But Phil, knowing how critical talented winemakers are to harness the potential of this region, didn't want to see him go. Sergio knew the benefits of these gravelly soils for great Bordelais varietals." At Murrieta's Well, Philip Wente wanted to focus on approachable luxury white and red blends, all crafted from the estate. "I had just sold my share in Concannon and the idea appealed to me," Traverso said in an interview in Wine Review Online. By 1991, the old winery had been Karl Wente walks the vineyards at Wente Vineyards.