California Wine Country

Ah, California Wine Country! Steve and I took a trip to Napa quite a few years ago and absolutely loved it. We began tasting wine around 10am and by the time we had dinner we were totally wined out.

But there is so much more to California Wine Country than the Napa Valley. So I want to take you on a little visit to the Inland Valleys along the back roads. With the help of Wine Institute series Highlights of the Wine Roads Less Traveled. Here we will take a look the Inland Valleys, formed by the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys. And we will also explore the Far North of California.

California is home to dozens of distinct wine regions, including some of the world’s most famous destinations. We hear about Napa, Santa Barbara and Sonoma all of the time. But know it will be fun to to explore the new, off the beaten path wine roads and wineries in some other expansive and welcoming regions.

Inland Valleys Wine Region

The Inland Valleys of Sacramento and San Joaquin produce 230 crops and a majority of California’s wine grapes. Running 450 miles from the San Joaquin Valley in the south to the Sacramento Valley in the north, the Inland Valleys are located in California’s geographic center, one of the world’s most fertile agricultural regions. More than 230 crops are grown in this area, including a majority of the state’s wine grapes. Many wineries call the Inland Valleys home, the majority of which are small, family-owned producers. This means that winery visitors can usually find the winemaker or owner, which is often one and the same person, pouring in the tasting room. I don’t know about you, but I love getting to know the person responsible for what I am tasting.

Sacramento, the capital of California, is surrounded by a diverse collection of wine regions and is also known as the state’s “farm-to-fork capital,” making it a popular home base for wine tasting in the Sacramento Valley. The Lodi wine region, just south of Sacramento, was named Wine Region of the Year by Wine Enthusiast Magazine in 2015. Wine grapes came to Lodi with the Gold Rush, and the local wine industry continued to flourish through Prohibition, thanks to farmers who maintained their vineyards for legal “home winemaking.” Today, nearly 80 Lodi vintners craft some of the country’s finest Zinfandel from those same historic vines and also produce a diverse array of wines from more than 100 grapes grown in the region including Spanish,  Portuguese, German, Italian and Southern Rhone varieties. Nearby Clarksburg is famous for its Chenin Blanc, and the Old Sugar Mill which was built in 1934 as a beet sugar refinery and now hosts 15 wineries that offer samples in a single space. Wineries in the Chico-Oroville area are in the northern reaches of Sacramento Valley. Find them on the North Sierra Wine Trail.

The San Joaquin Valley, south from Lodi, has been called “the food basket of the world.” More than 30 wineries call this region home, producing a wide variety of wines that include Chardonnay, Zinfandel and Moscato. Yosemite National Park is adjacent to the valley and just south of the park is Madera County, one of California’s oldest wine regions. Madera is known for its dessert and port-style wines, and many can be sampled along the Madera Wine Trail. Further south, explore the Fresno County Wine Journey with 13 wineries offering signature wines at each location.

Approaching California’s northern border is the majestic beauty of the Far North wine region with its giant redwoods and teeming wildlife. Area residents enjoy a quieter lifestyle, evidenced by its rural homesteads and eclectic wineries. The scenic Shasta-Cascade, which includes Mount Shasta and the Lassen Volcanic National Park, has more than 25 wineries. Humboldt County began growing grapes in the 1980s—many of them organic—and now there are more than 150 acres planted there.

About Wine Institute

Wine Institute is the public policy advocacy group for California wineries, which produce 80 percent of U.S. wine and account for  more than 95 percent of U.S. wine exports. As the nation’s number one state for wine and food tourism with 139 American Viticultural Areas, California attracts 24 million visitors to its wine regions each year.