After nearly 25 years of managing some 2,000 acres of premium grapes, Jonathan and Cathy thought they might try their hand at making a little wine. They enjoyed working together, and knew they had some great fruit coming from these vineyards, so in 2000, they made a small amount of Zinfandel. Still not sure how good they had done, they sampled the wine with winemakers and others in the industry, and received such favorable feedback they decided to move forward. In January 2002 they started their own winery.

In 2012, two families decided to officially start a winery. Wanting to own a vineyard and build a winery facility from the ground up, they purchased a 6-acre Syrah vineyard and adjoining lot on Wetmore Road in South Livermore. Their winery, Dante Robere Vineyards is named after Dan and Bob. They currently make and pour their wine on Tesla Road in east Livermore while they await completion of construction of their new facility on Wetmore Road scheduled to open in 2015.

Their goal is to make wine from Livermore Valley grapes when possible but also to procure quality grapes from other wine growing regions that are well suited to certain unique varietals. Their estate-grown Syrah, blended wines featuring the estate Syrah, and other Rhone varietals such as Grenache and Mourvedre are their signature wines. But they also produce the stalwart varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Petite Sirah and Chardonnay, as well as more unique wines such as Tempranillo, Touriga and Barbera.

Ken Deaver stoops his broad shoulders to uncork a bottle of Zinfandel, wearing his trade- mark denims and cowboy hat, and you soon learn that Ken knows his wines. And his grapes. As you look upon Deaver’s 300 acres you will see 140-year-old Zinfindel vines and eight acres of Mission vines, so called because they were brought from Mexico by the Jesuits and Franciscans. The Deaver mission vines were planted around 1854 by Ken Deaver's great grandfather John A. Davis.