What is California's Next Big Region?

• A high-volume producer is setting up shop in the Suisun Valley adjacent to Napa Valley AVA.

• A major property holder in Napa has offered incentives to wineries to buy fruit from Lake County.

The number of wines bearing labels of provenance from less recognized nooks and crannies of California seems to be increasing.

Does anyone have premonitions of future “hot spots” or overlooked winegrowing regions gaining legitimacy/prestige in the eyes of consumers?



I know what I would like to see, but the truth will probably be different. :slight_smile:

Besides the Sierra Foothills, I find most of CA pretty picked over. What is not used for grapes now is mostly houses, desert, forests…hard to see this changing with land costs and environmental considerations.

So…what would you like to see, Drew??? I want to know what wines I can’t live without!!! [snort.gif]

There are plenty of unexplored/unexploited/untouched ares in Calif that offer the potential to make great wine.
StewBewley’s AlderSprings vnyd is a classic example. Way the hell & gone in the boondocks of Northern Mendocino Cnty.
But world-class grapes are coming out of there.
Humbolt Cnty is pretty unexploited is my take. I need to go visit there.
Plenty of other NCalif areas all the way up to the Oregon border. Especially in the costal ranges and East in the Sierras. TehamaCnty for example.

All sorts of nooks & crannies to be explored. All it takes is someone w/ a vision, plenty of $$'s, and just a little teched in the head.

Tom

Tom’s post is, not surprisingly, apt. If you look at a geologic map of California and think about continuation of climatic shift, it’s easy to see Humboldt becoming the next hot spot. It’s also easy to see, looking at the map, why the particular area of the Sierra Foothills that has lately come into vogue is continuing its trajectory. If you read John McPhee’s Assembling California, it discusses at length the geologic history that formed the area because that lead to the 1850’s gold rush. In both areas, granite’s and high calcium sea-floor deposits dominate. Along with volcanic, those loosely form the holy trinity of winegrowing soils.

The other area where you see a lot of granites and sea floor deposits is around the Monterey Bay, where I’ve set roots. There are plenty of vineyards in the ground around here, some dating back over 100 years, but the area hasn’t experienced a full on winery explosion a la Sonoma, Paso or Santa Barbara and a savvy winemaker can still make high value product if you know where to look. Given the fruit prices and availability in more developed areas, we’re seeing lots of high profile winemakers try to poach sources down here to fill out their lineups, which is tiring (work locally and add value to your community). If we have the right set of talent working out of this region, there’s no question in my mind that the quality will speak volumes and, with the natural beauty of the area, it could become a real hotbed. Not that I’m advocating for that… it’s kind of nice to be insulated from some of the wine country silliness.

I don’t think that’s true at all. Just think of the coast from Mendocino County north, which isn’t heavily developed, and where lots of interesting wines are being made. Do you remember Kevin Harvey’s new venture up there for Italian varieties? From the aerial photos he posted, it looked like there weren’t any other vineyards in miles.

And, as others have said, there is the Foothills, which is still not that heavily exploited.

Northern Mendocino and Humboldt Counties are still wild and untamed viticultural landscapes. It ain’t easy, but I’m always looking for new vineyard-designate wines from these regions. Considering its remoteness and the landscape, I think it’s fair to say (regardless of potential increases in wine production), that they’ll retain that remote character that makes these areas so special. At least I hope.

Interested in Suisun Valley - don’t know much but recently tried a few wines and they were quite nice.

Yup…agree, Isaac. The SuisunVlly is pretty underexploited and has some real potential. When MattRorick/Forlorn-Hope was making his
wines there at Tennbrink, he was making some very interesting wines from SuisunVlly. But they need to get out of the Cab/Merlot/Chard paradigm
and become more adventurous in what they plant. Matt convinced one grower (Roger??) to plant GreenHungarian. We’ll see what that brings.
Alas, I doubt Caymus has anything to contribute along those lines.

Tom

Yup, Ian…you’re looking at it from the geology/soils aspect and I couldn’t agree more. There’s a lot of potential there in MontereyCnty, outside the
SantaRitaHills, which has done a lot for raising the stature of Monterey.

BTW…your name came up last night. I was sitting w/ a couple (he was my former group leader), Dave & Jean Harris at a TablasCreek wine dinner.
Their daughter, Sarah (Harris?) , works at Scheid and they recognized your name from Sarah as consulting at one time for Schied, but got too busy.
Pretty small world, I thought. They were dazzled when I brought up your name and immediately recognized it. I bragged to them that…yeah…I’d followed
IanBrand from the very start!! [snort.gif] Schied has a lot of interesting stuff planted. But my impression is that they’re a pretty industrial operation.
Not had many of their wines.
Tom

This is a really good question - and to me deserves a couple of other answers.

First and foremost, as others have pointed out, there are plenty of ‘nooks and crannies’ either beginning to produce great juice, or that have been producing it and have gone unnoticed because they are ‘not Napa or Sonoma’. And yep, I certainly am biased about that :slight_smile:

Secondly, I think most will agree that there are plenty of ‘gems’ to be had in places that one may considered ‘saturated’. This is due to a number of factors:

  • New winemakers stepping up with ‘different concepts’ of what the area can produce
  • Spotlight on ‘less popular’ varieties within a region that have never been given the opportunity to shine
  • Winemakers who have been at it for awhile and are honing the craft
  • New vineyards / varieties being planted, adding a ‘fresh’ look at the area

You can pretty much substitute in any winemaking region in CA and the above fits - perfectly.

Cheers!

Tom,

Sarah works at Pierce Ranch, not Scheid, and not industrial at all. They do have some very interesting things planted, lots of portuguese and spanish grapes, in the San Antonio Valley AVA near Lockwood. It’s a pretty extreme climate in the lee of the Santa Lucias at elevation, but the soils are there and varieties that can handle the hot days and cold nights get pretty interesting. So far the Graciano, Arinto, Verdelho, Petite Sirah, Touriga Nacional and Cabernet Sauvignon have been winners, but it’s still very much a work in progress. I helped them open a winery on their property two years ago and they’ve taken over full control of their process. Really cool for the area. Sarah is doing a great job.

I’ve never worked with Scheid, but in the last handful of years, Scheid has been making a major push for quality and to move past their ‘industrial’ reputation. They control a lot of land in county and in San Benito, so any move that Scheid makes has major ripple effects. Also, their GM Kurt Golnick just bought the old Graff/Antle vineyard up in Chalone, which has of late become the darling of nerdy winemakers around the state. I’m hopeful that he continues that direction.

You should delve back into our stuff, Tom. It’s been a while and we’ve made a lot of progress from even a couple vintages ago – which will happen when you make 50+ wines a year. Idle hands… Stop by sometime. We could nerd out heavy in the warehouse.

Ian

That’s right, Ian. PierceRanch Sarah works. We were also talking last night about Schied…and that stuck in my mind.
Tom

Thanks for your insight, Larry!

While I am certainly intrigued by the thoughts expressed by the other commenters, your statements are more in the vein of my intended point(s).

Just as Napa and Sonoma are areas familiar to many non-winegeeks, I wonder what pre-existing grape growing areas might rise in the realm of consumer awareness or - better yet - gain something approaching the worldwide acclaim traditionally reserved for a very small number of geographic pockets.

I have created threads previously expressing my focused interest in the winemaking culture and history of two specific counties in California.

Anderson Valley is my pick

East coast of CA will make some cool stuff when it breaks off of the mainland.

I am not very well versed on CA geography or land ownership but it seem to me that the Area where Calera has their winery and vineyards is under utilized. I mean they are out in the middle of nowhere with very few other wineries around. I love their wines and would think others would be looking at this area??

These are great points, Larry. Was actually going to write something similar, but you beat me to it!!

For myself and many of the folks I know making wine in Napa/Sonoma, the above really seems to be the way forward.

Not sure how I missed this thread with Ian, TomHill and Isaac all commenting on Humboldt. Drinking too much? newhere

I can’t say that I am qualified to speak about the rest of CA, but I can tell you that Humboldt is big. Almost 1.5 million acres big. So far, there are a few vineyards west to east on the south end and a handful in the NE. The rest of the country has not really even been tested in terms of grape farming.

Potential: It seems to me that there are very few flatish spots that are easy to farm and over a few acres, but there are lots of good to great small spots. This could be both a strength and a weakness. Depending on the site, most areas can be dry farmed or near dry farmed after the vines are established.

Limitations: Labor force and support are limited. Water needs to be done site by site. Most of the flat land is river bottom and probably not great for wine grapes. Most of the good + sites are hilly and difficult.

It might be a hot area for wine production, but it will never be very big in terms of volume. Too much works against that. All of that without even mentioning the obvious effects of the other crop. [truce.gif]

I’d think that other parts of the Far North region such as Trinity and Siskiyou counties have a lot of potential as well. Maybe lower land costs too.

My 10 cents.

I’m throwing Catalina Island into the mix . . . Only one winery making wines from there, Rusack, but interesting site indeed . . .

Cheers!

I’d like the answer to be Humboldt, which could deliver quality, value, and a fresher style.

My guess is that Humboldt is likely to become the next big region in cultivating a different intoxicant, or maybe it already is one.

All I know is that if I lived Cali…I would be making cab franc here…


Cienega Valley

Wake up California!!!