California, with its capital Sacramento, is the third-largest and by far the most populous state in the USA with an area of 423,970 km². It is located in the west of the country and borders the Pacific Ocean, the states of Oregon, Nevada and Arizona as well as the Mexican state of Baja California on the peninsula of the same name. California's official nickname is the Golden State. In 1846, US settlers declared California's independence (Bear Flag Republic) and proclaimed their own Republic of California, which led to the Mexican-American War. On 9 September 1850, California became the 31st state to join the USA.
The wines were produced in a fairly primitive way at the time; a contemporary report provides information about this: a cowhide (wineskin) filled with crushed grapes hung between two trees, in which fermentation took place. At the bottom was a stopper which was simply pulled out to fill a cup of wine. The Mission wine was usually distilled into schnapps and used to spritz the remaining wine. Around 1833, a Frenchman with the symbolic name Jean-Louis Vignes (1780-1862) planted vines imported from Europe near Los Angeles for the first time. General Mariano Vallejo (1808-1890) was the last Mexican governor of California, which first became independent in 1846 and four years later in 1850 became the 31st US state. He had established a vineyard in Sonoma and was the first large-scale wine grower. In 1849, gold fever broke out in California and Zinfandel wine became the favourite drink of gold miners.
Viticultural pioneer Agoston Haraszthy
The big breakthrough came in 1860 with the Hungarian Agoston Haraszthy (1812-1869), who founded the Buena Vista Winery in Sonoma and introduced hundreds of European grape varieties. In the immediate neighbourhood, the German Jacob Gundlach founded a winery, which was reactivated in 1973 under the name Gundlach-Bundschu. Another pioneer was Prussian-born Charles Krug (1825-1892), who founded the Charles Krug Winery in St Helena in Napa Valley in 1861 and trained young winemakers. French-born Paul Masson (1859-1940) became famous from 1892 with his sparkling wine and was dubbed the "Champagne King of California". By the end of the 19th century, a diverse wine culture had developed with high-quality wines made from imported European vinifera varieties.
University of California
Around 1880, the University of California founded a wine research centre in Berkeley, which later became Davis. By 1890, one million hectolitres of wine had already been produced. The phylloxera catastrophe from 1880 destroyed many vineyards, but they were rebuilt. However, Prohibition (1920-1933) brought about the total decline of American wine culture. It was not until the 1950s that a revolution began. It began with small wineries experimenting with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir as well as French oak barrels. The pioneers responsible for the revival were Robert Mondavi (1913-2008), who founded his first winery in Oakville in Napa Valley in 1966, and Joe Heitz (1919-2000). Both were supported by the famous oenologist André Tchelistcheff (1901-1994). The high quality of Californian wines was also confirmed by an already legendary wine tasting (Paris Wine Tasting).
Wine-growing regions
California is divided into five major wine-growing regions, but these are by no means the same as the climatic regions listed below. The regions are divided into political counties (provinces), each with several AVA areas. However, these can also extend beyond the political county boundaries, as is the case with Wild Horse Valley (Napa and Solano counties) and Los Carneros (Napa and Sonoma counties):
The region covers around 25,000 hectares of vineyards. It forms a 560 km long strip from the north south of San Francisco Bay to Los Angeles in the south.
This huge region comprises 140,000 hectares of vineyards for wine grapes and a further 80,000 hectares for table grape and sultana production. Three quarters of California's wine production comes from here.
The region comprises 50,000 hectares of vineyards. It forms a 160 km long and 80 km wide strip from San Francisco Bay up to Mendocino. The most famous wine-growing area, the Napa Valley, is located here.
The region between the Central Valley and the Rocky Mountains was once very important. Today it comprises only 2,100 hectares of vineyards.
This less important wine-growing region lies between the two cities of Los Angeles in the north and San Diego on the Mexican border in the south.
Climatic regions
The vineyards stretch over 1,000 kilometres along the Pacific coast. There are more different soil types than in any other wine-growing region in the world. There are over 30 in the Napa Valley alone, which is only 50 kilometres long, and the most important wine-growing regions lie at the same latitude as southern Spain and southern Italy. One of the variants for the name is that the Spaniards gave the hot country the apt name "Caliente Fornella", which means "hot oven". However, a beautiful Amazonian queen named Califia is also mentioned; a character from a novel. Especially along the coast, the sun's heat is considerably tempered by the cool winds and fog of the Pacific. There is hardly any rainfall between April and September, so many vineyards have to be irrigated artificially.
The climates are very different, so that extensive analyses were carried out as early as the 1930s. At the University of California in Davis, the scientist Albert J. Winkler (1894-1989) created a categorisation into five climate regions or zones based on a temperature sum system, which was then officially introduced as a classification system in 1944. All daily average temperatures are measured from 1 April to 31 October as the basis for this.
All values above 50 °Fahrenheit (10 °C) are added together to give the "Degree-Days". For example, if the average temperatures on a total of 130 days were 70 °F, the heat factor would be 70 minus 50 x 130 (days) = 2,600. Surprisingly, however, the amount of precipitation was not taken into account. Recommendations for grape varieties, rootstocks and training methods are given for each region. The best dry wines are produced in regions I, II and III, while regions IV and V are particularly suitable for alcohol-enriched wines, table grapes and sultanas.
Region I - heat factor up to 2,500 degree-days
Comparable to Moselle, Burgundy, Loire and Champagne. This region is particularly suitable for the Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc varieties. These include, for example, Carneros and Mendocino (North Coast); Santa Clara, Santa Cruz and Monterey (Central Coast).
Region II - heat factor 2,501 to 3,000 degree-days
Comparable to Bordeaux (France) and Piedmont (Italy). The region is particularly suitable for the Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Nebbiolo and Zinfandel varieties. The best dry wines come from here. These include, for example, the southern Napa Valley and Sonoma (North Coast).
Region III - heat factor 3,001 to 3,500 degree-days
Comparable to the Rhône and Tuscany. The region is particularly suitable for Grenache Noir (Garnacha Tinta), Sangiovese and Syrah. This includes the northern Napa Valley, for example.
Region IV - heat factor 3,501 to 4,000 degree-days
Comparable to central Spain. This largely includes the Central Valley and San Diego County (South Coast).
Region V - Heat factor over 4,000 degree-days
Comparable to Greece and Tunisia. This includes parts of the Central Valley.
Wine law
The wine law is quite simple and allows producers a great deal of leeway. There are far fewer restrictions than in Europe. Among other things, winemaking techniques that are prohibited in the EU, such as spinning cone columns or the addition of aromatic oak extracts and various flavourings, are permitted or allowed.
Varietals (varietal wines) make up the majority of production. They must contain at least 75% of the specified grape variety. The special Californian term Meritage is used for cuvées. Generics (generic wines) have a designation of origin. If a county is named, 75% of the wine must come from that county. If an AVA is named, it must be 85% and if a vineyard or site is named, it must be 95%. The previously widespread but incorrect use of European designations of origin such as Burgundy, Chablis, Chianti, Sherry, Port and Rhine is now no longer permitted, at least for new wine brands, due to the wine trade agreement signed between the EU and the USA in December 2005 (see the relevant section under the heading Wine Law).
Grape varieties
In 2022, the vineyards covered 195,000 hectares of vines and the wine production volume was 18 million hectolitres. A further 120,000 hectares are used for the production of table grapes and, as the world's leading producer of sultanas, largely from the most common variety, Thompson Seedless (Sultana), which covers 80,000 hectares of vineyards. There is a great diversity of varieties with many new varieties created especially for Californian conditions. Around 40% is planted with white wine varieties and 60% with red wine varieties. The grape variety index (Kym Anderson statistics):
After the Second World War, the University of California carried out extensive field trials to find suitable rootstocks. At the beginning of the 1960s, Davis recommended using the AxR 1 rootstock in coastal areas, which was done on a large scale. This turned out to be a big mistake, as this rootstock was only moderately resistant to phylloxera. Phylloxera made a comeback in the 1980s and caused huge damage to Californian vineyards. On the one hand, this was a catastrophe, but on the other it offered the opportunity to replace unwanted stocks.
Producers
In the middle of the 20th century, there were only 25 wineries; today there are well over 2,000, some of them very small. The 25 largest producers produce around 90% of the wine volume. Well-known producers include Abreu, Almaden Vineyards, Araujo, Beaulieu Vineyard, Beringer, Bronco Wine Company (with the Charles Shaw brand), Buena Vista Winery, Chalone Vineyard, Charles Krug Winery, Chateau Montelena, Clos du Bois, Clos Du Val Winery, Concannon, Dominus Estate, Fetzer, Francis Ford Coppola Winery, Freemark Abbey Winery, Gallo, Grgich Hills, Gundlach-Bundschu, Hanzell, Heitz, Inglenook Winery (formerly Niebaum-Coppola and Rubicon), Iron Horse, Jordan, Kendall-Jackson (Jackson Family Wines), Kenwood, Korbel, Krankl Manfred, Marimar Estate, Martha's Vineyard, Louis M. Martini, Paul Masson, Mayacamas Vineyards, Mondavi, Opus One, Joseph Phelps, Pine Ridge, Ridge Vineyards, Screaming Eagle, Sebastiani, Siduri Wines, Simi Winery, Spring Mountain Vineyard, Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, Sutter Home and Wine Group (Franzia). Others are listed in the areas (AVA).
Map: from National Atlas of the United States - Public domain, Link
Flag: by Donald Graeme Kelley - Own work, Public domain, Link
Logo: by Donald Graeme Kelley, Public domain, Link
Sonoma County and wine regions: Wine Institute of California
