This episode of the Cooking Chat Food & Wine podcast features an engaging conversation with Aly Wente, a member of the fifth generation stewarding Wente Family Vineyards—America’s longest continuously family-owned and operated winery.
With over 140 years of history rooted in California’s Livermore Valley, Wente Vineyards has made major contributions to the story of American wine from its German immigrant beginnings to its current focus on sustainability and innovation.
Aly shares how her family pioneered California Chardonnay, including the origin of the famed Wente Clone, which now influences 75% of all Chardonnay grown in the state. She also reflects on her personal journey that brought her to be part of the next generation of the Wente family guiding the winery into the future.
Discover what makes Livermore Valley an excellent spot for making wine, and why the region’s winemakers have decided to lift up Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Franc as the region’s signature. During this episode, I had a chance to taste two examples of Wente’s wines that highlight the promise of these grapes.
If you’re passionate about wine, inspired by family business legacies, or curious about under-the-radar wine regions, this episode blends tradition, innovation, and the future of American wine in one compelling story.
Today’s Guest
As one of the key drivers of the senior leadership team, contributing towards the vision, values, and strategic directionfor Wente Family Estates (WFE), Aly Wente is a pivotal player inshaping the future of her family’s 140-year-old company.
Aly manages growth for the entire WFE brand portfolio, overseeing the organization’s marketing and direct-to-consumer businesses. In this role, Aly and her team areresponsible for all brand programs and strategiesfor wholesale distribution and the
customer experience online and on property, including ecommerce, tasting rooms, wine clubs, and sales channels.
Aly joined WFE in July 2019 and quickly became the company’s most definitive ambassador. Her fresh voice has helped Wente Vineyards resonate with the next generation of wine drinkers while ensuring its consistency for loyal, long-term customers. She leads portfolio strategy, including acquisitions and innovation. She has transformed the organizational structure by redefining roles and hiring talented leaders from unconventional industries to provide fresh approaches to marketing and hospitality.
With an eye on the future, Aly has implemented some of WFE’s most significant recent initiatives. She expanded in-house culinary programming by partnering with Levy, the industry leader in hospitality experiences at world-class entertainment and cultural institutions. Aly represents WFE’s Sustainable Action Committee on the senior leadership team, ensuring its goals are elevated and executed. An advocate for employee welfare and social sustainability, Aly is a strong partner to HR, spearheading initiatives like paid parental leave across the entire organization.
Aly has been profiled on Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s “40 Under 40” and Innovation Tri-Valley’s “20 Under 40” lists and is a highly sought public speaker, sharing insights on sustainability panels as well as at The Wine Institute, Unified, and the Les Dames d’Escoffier national conference.
Mentorship is important to Aly – especially as a resource to young professional women – and she has acted as an official mentor in partnership with the Veraison Project, sharing its emphasis on creating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive wine industry. She is active in Dress for Success and has hosted seminars on topics like imposter syndrome at the nonprofit’s San Francisco chapter.
Aly grew up exploring all sides of the family business and credits her father, Phil Wente, for fostering her love of wine. Before joining the family business, Aly studied Broadcast Journalism at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. She held brand marketing roles at Constellation Brands, where she led strategy and development for a portfolio of luxury brands, including Napa Valley’s Robert Mondavi and Mount Veeder Wineries, Sonoma’s Simi Winery, and Champagne Palmer & Co.
Aly holds a Level 3 Advanced Certification from the Wine & Spirits Education Trust (WSET), serves on the Wente Foundation for Arts Education Board, and is the Secretary of the Livermore Valley Winegrowers Foundation Board. In her free time, she enjoys skiing, wakeboarding, and hiking in Tahoe with her husband and their son, Jones and daughter, Remi.
Wine Pairings
Here are some of the tasty pairings I came up with for some of the wines from Wente and Murrieta’s Well, a Livermore Valley winery that has been owned by the Wente family since 1940.
Pasta with Peas served with Sauvignon Blanc
We had the 2023 Murrieta’s Well Sauvignon Blanc ($19, 14.5% ABV) with our Pasta with Peas, Pecorino and Onions recipe recently. A delicious pairing!
Aly explained on the podcast how the Livermore Valley gets breezes that come off San Francisco Bay. I definitely picked up notes of salinity on the nose of this wine, which reminded me of that comment. The fruit forward aspect of this Sauvignon Blanc makes it work really well with the pasta with peas dish.
Cabernet Franc with Everyday Pasta
The 2022 Wente Livermore Valley Cabernet Franc ($50, 14.5% ABV) is a fruit forward version of Cab Franc. As Aly noted, you don’t get the pronounced green bell pepper notes found in many Cab Francs. This shows ripe red cherries with some herbal notes.
Cabernet Franc is food friendly wine, and this bottle was very good paired with our Pasta with Everyday Meat Sauce. Aly notes that this Cab Franc is a great partner for a steak or a pork chop, or maybe even a flatbread pizza.
Broccolini Pasta with Sauvignon Blanc
The 2023 Wente Limited Release Sauvignon Blanc ($35, 13.5% ABV) is one of the wines I tasted on the podcast with Aly. She explained how this is a great Sauvignon Blanc for Chardonnay lovers, made with barrel fermentation. This gives it a creaminess and more weight than Sauv Blancs made in stainless steel.
I definitely liked the creamy mouthfeel of this Sauvignon Blanc, and mentioned the melon notes. Aly suggested this wine would be great with prosciutto and melon appetizer, and I agree!
As you can see from the photo, I served this Sauvignon Blanc with another pasta dish – the Broccolini Pasta with Garlic. We also had a bit of salmon on the plate; which worked given that this wine has more depth than the typical Sauv Blanc.
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