The Great Golden State

California wineries make over 80% of American wine … period. It’s the fourth leading wine producer in the world! Though you may think of California wine and think of grapes like Zinfandel, Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir, the state’s vineyards grow over 100 grape varieties. It is an understatement to say that California is a majorly important part of America’s wine identity.

The state offers a variety of microclimates, from cool coastal areas to warm inland valleys — and, of course, mountains, mountains. mountains. It has six major wine regions with numerous AVAs:

• North Coast

  • From San Francisco, moving north to Fort Bragg, what we have here is a vast coastal wine region. The home for many of California’s cold climate grapes, here you’ll find the state’s most famous AVAs — Mendocino County, Sonoma County, and Napa.

• Central Coast

  • Spanish invaders found grapes growing wild around Central Coast rivers when they came to California. The first organized viticulture, however, came from missionaries in the 1700s. This region surrounds San Francisco and is the home of AVAs like Monterey County, Santa Barbara County, and Paso Robles.

• Sierra Foothills

  • An inland zone stretched along the north-western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range that separates California from Nevada, the Sierra Foothills region is one of the largest AVAs not just in California, but in the whole country.

• Inland (Central) Valleys

  • A major agricultural area, this region lies between the Sierra Foothills and the Central Coast. It’s where you will find the Lodi and Sacramento Valley AVAs.

• Southern California

  • Here, we hit the warm climate southwest corner of the U.S., going from Ventura County down to Mexico. We’re talking San Diego County, Temecula Valley, and Los Angeles AVAs.

• Far. North California

  • The Far North contains five AVAs despite relatively few facilities making wine from the region’s grapes.

This Wine Wednesday, we feature wines from California. Please feel free to join us, weather permitting. This is another of our free, walk-up tastings from 5:00 to 6:30 PM.