Wine Country

This article deals with the wine-growing region. For the film, see Wine Country (2019) .

Vineyard in the Russian River Valley , Sonoma County

Wine Country is a wine-growing region in Northern California . It is located north of San Francisco and consists of over 400 wineries , mostly in Sonoma County and Napa County . Some of the most famous wine-growing areas in the region include Napa Valley , Sonoma Valley , Dry Creek Valley , Alexander Valley, and Russian River Valley .

Breakdown by wine-growing regions

The wine-growing region of Wine Country is located in the Counties of Mendocino , Napa and Sonoma - in some publications part of Lake County is also included. The following American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) are located in these counties :

• Mendocino County: Anderson Valley , Covelo , Mendocino, and Potter Valley .
• Napa County: Atlas Peak , Los Carneros , Mount Veeder , Napa Valley , Oakville , Rutherford , Saint Helena , Stags Leap District, and Yountville .
• Sonoma County: Alexander Valley , Bennett Valley , Chalk Hill , Dry Creek Valley , Green Valley of Russian River Valley , Knight's Valley , Los Carneros , Northern Sonoma , Rockpile , Russian River Valley , Sonoma Coast , Sonoma Mountain, and Sonoma Valley .
• Lake County: Clear Lake , Guenoc Valley , High Valley, and Red Hills Lake Counties .

Wine Country is thus a subset of the North Coast AVA , which includes Mendocino, Napa, Sonoma and Lake Counties as well as wine-growing regions in Marin and Solano counties .

tourism

Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic at Windsor 2012: First balloons take off at five in the morning

Tourists visit the Wine Country not just for the wine, but also for hiking, biking or ballooning . In addition, the Wine Country is also known for its farmers' markets, thermal baths and for its Petrified Forest .

A number of seasonal festivals attract tourists to the area, including:

• Napa Valley Mustard Festival : Since 1993, when the mustard planted between the vines is in bloom, activities related to wine, culinary specialties and art have been taking place throughout the Wine Country every year from late January to March.

• Sonoma Jazz Festival : Four-day jazz festival around Memorial Day at the end of May. The event takes place in a tent that can hold several thousand people in Sonoma .

• Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic : Windsor hosts a hot air balloon event annually in July .

• Sonoma County Harvest Fair : An annual harvest-time festival in Sonoma County held in Santa Rosa in early October.

One of the negative aspects of tourism in the Wine Country that through Calistoga and Napa leading California State Route 29 on weekends - is often overloaded by heavy traffic - especially in the summer months.

history

The beginnings and first boom during the gold rush

General Vallejo, Northern California military commander and first non-church vintner in Sonoma (photograph, late 19th century)

Viticulture in the Wine Country began in the first half of the 19th century. In 1823 the Franciscan priest José Altimíra founded the San Francisco Solano mission station , from which the city of Sonoma later developed. The missionaries raised cattle, planted olives, planted vines and, with the production of wine for liturgical purposes, laid the foundation for today's wine production in the Wine Country. Unlike today, the main focus at that time was on quantity and not quality. Contemporary travelers reported that the wine made by the priests was of inferior quality, but was suitable as mass wine and gave a decent aguardiente (brandy).

The Mexican military commander of Northern California Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo ran the first private vineyard in Sonoma . In the course of the dissolution of the Spanish mission system, which began in 1834, he distributed a large part of the secularized areas he controlled to his relatives and friends. He himself kept the best lands, grew wine, and won numerous awards in wine competitions at the California State Fair in later years .

Viticulture in the Wine Country experienced its first boom during the Californian gold rush between 1848 and 1854. Among the gold prospectors who immigrated to California were numerous Italians and French who brought with them the necessary knowledge for winemaking. Some of them realized that more money could be made by selling wine to gold diggers than by searching for gold itself. The population explosion caused by the gold rush also created a sufficiently large market for wine.

Agoston Haraszthy, pioneer of California viticulture

see Ágoston Haraszthy

literature

• John Doerper, Constance Jones and Sharron Wood: California Wine Country , Fifth Edition, New York 2007, ISBN 978-1-4000-1783-6 .

Web links

Commons : Wine Country  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

• WineCountry.com (contains, among other things, maps showing the location of the individual wineries)
• Fodor's: California Wine Country

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.mustardfestival.org/history.html , accessed on August 2, 2009.
2. ↑ http://www.sonomajazz.org , accessed August 2, 2009.
3. ↑ http://www.schabc.org , accessed on August 2, 2009.
4. ↑ http://www.sonomacountyfair.com , accessed August 2, 2009.
5. ↑ Doerper / Jones / Wood, California Wine Country , p. 12