Wine Regions of California

California has 5 major wine growing regions:

North Coast
          9 Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake County and North Coast.
Napa is probably California's best known wine region and home of some 300 wineries.  The valley has the ideal climates (warm sunny days and cool nights) for growing premium grape varietals such as: Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Zinfandel & Pinot Noir.

Sonoma is just one hour north of San Francisco, and is home to 12 different appellations: Alexander Valley, Dry Creek, Rockpile, Knights Valley, Northern Sonoma, Sonoma Coast, Russian River Valley, Green Valley-Sonoma, Chalk Hill, Sonoma Mountain, Sonoma Valley and Carneros.  

Sonoma has more than 200 wineries, and is home to the oldest winery in California just a few minutes from Sonoma Square.  The largest producer of "champagne" in the U.S. is a mere hour & a half away along the Russian River.

Mendocino, the Lake Country, and the North Coast regions also produce excellent California varieties similar to Napa and Sonoma.

Central Coast
          9 Monterey, Paso Robles, Santa Cruz Mountains, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, Livermore.
Over the last several years, California's Central Coast has matured into a region that produces world class wines. The area is full of small family-owned wineries where you can still meet with the winemaker, while sampling finely-crafted, award-winning wines.

Sierra Foothills
          9 Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Mariposa, Nevada, Tuolumne, Placer, Butte, Yuba.
Within these 8 Counties are the sub-viticultural areas of the Shenandoah Valley,  El Dorado, Fiddletown, and North Yuba.

South Coast
          9 San Diego, Temecula, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside.

Central Valley
          9 Lodi/Woodbridge.
The Central Valley is California's agricultural heartland and is 
actually 2 valleys that stretch almost 500 miles down the center of the state. The Sacramento  Valley and San Joaquin Valley are bordered on the east by the Sierra Nevada Mountains and by the Coast Range to the west.  The total acreage under wine grape cultivation in the
Central Valley dwarfs all other California regions.

 

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