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36 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Name the 4 large AVAs for winemaking in CA:
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North Coast, Central Coast, South Coast and the Sierra Foothills.
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Name the major wine-making counties of the North Coast AVA:
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Napa County, Sonoma County, Mendocino County, Lake County, Solano County and Marin County.
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Mendocino County
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Organic and biodynamic farming principles are widely employed, and wineries throughout CA purchase Mendocino grapes for multi-region blends
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Mendocino's interior Redwood, Ukiah, and McDowell valleys, flanked by the coast ranges to the west and the Mayacamas Range to the east, are typicaly dry, sunny, and warm -- often very warm, sometimes surpassing 100 degrees F in the summer and early fall.
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They have a long history of producing hearty, sometimes rustic red wines, including Barbera, Carignan, Zinfandel, Syrah, Petite Sirah, and field blends of these varieties, many from vines planted in the early 1900s.
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Anderson Valley AVA
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In Anderson Valley, chilly morning and evening temps and blankets of fog during the growing season promote the production of crisp, elegant Pinot Noirs and white wines in the tradition of those of Alsace and Germany, including Gewurztraminer, Pinot Gris, and Riesling.
Days can be gloriously balmy and reach 80 degrees F, yet temps can plummet to 45 degrees F or lower at night. |
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Anderson Valley AVA
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Its Pinot Noirs run the gamut from light, minerally, nuanced styles from the coldest sites to richer, more opulent styles from the warmer spots. Yet if there is a signature quality of these PN, it's bright, crunch acidity.
It's so valued that wineries throughout CA, including La Crema, Littorai, Saintsbury, Siduri Wines, Twomey Cellars and Williams Selyem, vinify the grapes for appellation- and vineyard-specific bottlings. |
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Yet the pivotal year for Anderson Valley was 1982...
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...when the French Champagne house Louis Roederer began planting a vineyard and building a sparkling-wine facility in Philo.
Roederer's Jean-Claude Rouzaud recognized that the Anderson Valley climate was conducive to growing PN and Chard grapes that could achieve the high levels of natural acidity required for traditional sparkling-wine production. |
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What is the smallest appellation in the US?
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Cole Ranch AVA in Mendocino County. The AVA is between the Russian River and Anderson Valley.
All planted land in the appellation is owned by one winery, Esterlina Winery, though some of the grapes are sold to other wineries. |
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Name 3 prominent producers and vineyards in Mendocino.
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Navarro Vineyards, Goldeneye (Duckhorn Vineyards' outpost in Anderson Valley) and Fetzer Vineyards.
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Mendocino and Lake County
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While Mendocino and Lake Counties are situated side by side, they are very different winegrowing regions.
Mendocino County's cool western area is suited for growing PN and Alsace grape varieties, its interior valleys are hot and best for Mediterranean grapes. Lake County is somewhere is somewhere in between, with warm days that are cooled by Clear Lake breezes. |
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Lake County
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This sub-AVA from Mendocino has largely been a factory for inexpensive grapes sold to wineries in Napa and Sonoma. (Beringer, Cakebread, Hess, and Stag's Leap are among those producers who rely on Lake grapes for their lower-priced wines or for blending into their higher-tier bottlings.
As recently as 2011, the Lake County Winegrape Commission estimated that 90 percent of the region's grapes were shipped to other areas, and at prices that were typically one quarter those for Napa Valley fruit. |
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Clear Lake
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The largest natural lake entirely within CA.
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Red Hills AVA
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The soils that helped make Napa Valley Cab Sauv so famous also exist here, yet with an additional element: an astonishing obsidian content.
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Obsidian Ridge Vineyard
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Planted at 2,650 fee, one is nearly blinded by sunlight reflecting off the grassy black shards that litter the site and slice truck and tractor tires to shreds.
Obsidian also acts as a heating element, bounding sunlight onto the developing grape clusters so that they can survive the chilly nights of the mountains. |
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Andy Beckstoffer
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When it comes to validation of Lake County winegrowing, look no further than Andy Beckstovver, the largest grower in Napa Valley, in both acreage and reputation. He realized that the Mayacamas mountain range, which runs south to north along the western boundary of Napa County and the eastern boundary of Napa County and the eastern boundary of Sonoma County, offers growing conditions similar tho those of eastern Lake County's Red Hills AVA.
In 1997, he began planting CS in the undulating brick-red soils at the base of 4,300-foot Mount Konocti, and his Red Hills acreage since has grown to 2,000 acres. |
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Lake County Superstar Producers
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Derenoncourt, Obsidian Ridge
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Sonoma County
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Unlike most CA wine regions, Sonoma County does not owe its grapevine history in Spanish missionaries.
Russians came to the area in 1812, working thier way south from Alaska to trap sea otters, whose plush pelts commanded top ruble in Moscow. They build Fort Ross near the mouth of the Russian River, where it empties into the ocean, and planted grapevines. When the otter population declined, the Russians moved on, but the seeds for winegrowing were sown. |
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Sonoma County soils
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Its topographical melange includes the rocky Pacific coastline, dense redwood forests, gently rolling hills, pastoral valleys, dry flatlands and the Mayacamas Mountains, where madrone and manzanita trees stand sentinel over narrow, winding roads.
Soils can be volcanic in one vineyard, gravel-run alluvial in one down the road, sandy loam in another, heavy clay in yet another. |
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Alexander Valley
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In the early 1970s, Napa VAlley's Chateau Montelena, the Chardonnay winner at the "Judgment of Paris," used grapes for that wine from Alexander Valley in Sonoma County,
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Sonoma County's largest city
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Santa Rosa
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Sonoma County Superstar Producers
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Fort Ross Seaview - Flowers and Marcassin
Dry Creek Valley - Ridge Lytton, Tedeschi, Lambert Bridge Northern Sonoma - Hirsch Alexander Valley - Jordan, Geyser Peak, Francis Ford Coppola, Clos du Bois, Ridge Lytton (Geyserville Zin), Robert Young Estate, , Seghesio, Silver Oak Cellars, Knights Valley - Peter Michael, Beringer Sonoma Coast - Occidental (Evening Land), Cobb Wines |
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Jordan Vineyard
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In 1972, oilman Tom Jordan founded Jordan Vineyard & Winery.
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Alexander Valley
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One cannot talk about Alexander Valley, which became an AVA in 1988, without mentioning Seghesio Vineyards, known for its marvelous old-vine Zinfandels.
Seghesio is often thought to be in Dry Creek Valley, and while it does have vineyards there, its home is in Alexander Valley, as are two of tis most important vineyards: San Lorenzo, planted in the early 1890s, and Home Ranch, purchased by Edoardo Seghesio in 1895. |
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Knights Valley
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Sonoma County's warmest AVA.
The soils are minerally, rhyolitic material washed down from Mount St. Helena. Beringer Vineyards, in Napa Valley, planted vines here in the late 1960s and bottles its first wine from Knights Valley in 1974. |
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Sir Peter Michael
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In 1982, British electronics magnate, who first visited Knights Valley while working in Silicon Valley, purchased land in the valley and began developing an eponymous winery estate.
HIs wines have been produced by a succession of talented winemakers: Helen Turley (Marcassin), Mark Aubert (Aubert wines), Vanessay Wong (Peay Vineyards), and brothers Luc and Nicolas Morlet (Morlet Family Vineyards). |
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Peter Michael
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His wines -- SB, Chard, Merlot, CS and PN -- hail not only from Knights Valley but also from vineyards on the Sonoma Coast and in Napa Valley, and the PN has been sourced from as far south as Santa Lucia Highlands in Monterey County.
Most of the wines are unfiltered, boldly flavored, ripe, and potent. Mon Plaisir (Chardonnay) and Les Pavots (a Bdx-vareity red-blend).] |
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How and where does Napa valley run from?
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Napa Valley stretches northward from the San Pablo Bay past the principal towns of Napa and St. Helena to Calistoga, with its width narrowing -- from 5 miles wide at the town of Napa to 1 mile at Calistoga -- and temps warming perceptibly as one travels north.
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Altitude has a major effect on temperature
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Napa Valley's vineyards stretch from 0 to over 2,000 ft above sea level.
The valley is formed by the Mayacamas Mountains to the west, which mark the border with Sonoma County, and the Vaca Mountains on the east. |
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The valley has a remarkable diversity of volcanic, alluvial and maritime soil types, ranging from well-drained gravel loam to dense clays to the thin, rocky soils of the hillside vineyards.
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CS "mountain fruit" from Napa's sun-drenched hillside vineyards and mountainside AVAs is prized for tis density, dark fruit and concentration, and its ability to retain a good acid structure through intense ripeness.
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The high-altidue, west-facing vineyards of Howell Mountain AVA, Napa's first sub-appellation to receive its own AVA, produce benchmark mountain wines. However, erosion is a serious concern amongst Napa's hillside growers, as heavy winter rains can literally wash away a a vineyards's entire topsoil, leaving nothing but hard bedrock behind.
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The topsoil on the valley floor is deeper, and valley fruit tends to produce a more elegant and supple style of Cabernet, with less intensity of color.
Rutherford AVA exemplifies the valley floor style. |
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What was Napa's first sub-appellation to receive its own AVA?
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Howell Mountain
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Name the 16 sub-AVA's of Napa roughly from North to South.
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Northern (my own reference):
1. Calistoga 2. Diamond Mountain District 3. Chiles Valley District 4. Spring Mountain District 5. Howell Mountain 6. St. Helena Middle Napa (my own reference): 1. Rutherford 2. Oakville 3. Yountville 4. Stag's Leap District 5. Atlas Peak Southern Napa (my own reference): 1. Mount Veeder 2. Los Carneros 3. Coombsville 4. Oak Knoll 5. Wild Horses Valley |
