The International Chardonnay Symposium, set for May 12-14, will present its first “Legendary Family of Chardonnay Award” to Wente Family Estates. The Wente family began by planting 47 acres of grapes in 1883 in the Livermore Valley, growing to 200 acres by the 1930s. After Prohibition, the Wente family developed a Wente chardonnay clone, which changed California’s wine landscape. Today, 80 percent of chardonnay grapes grown in California comes from the family clone. This year, the Wente family celebrates their 80th anniversary of bottling the first varietal labeled chardonnay.