This is a wine region like no other in California. The tasting rooms range in style from palatial French country estates to an ancient English hilltop fortress to tasting in a humble farmhouse; it’s all there waiting for you. It can have the feeling of an Scottish moor on a foggy day or when the sun shines, the marshes and meadows come alive with birds and other wildlife. This is a perfect place for a day of bike riding, kayaking and bird watching, and then you can finish it off with an afternoon of tasting world class wines; does it get much better than this?
The Los Carneros AVA (American Viticulture Area), established in 1983, covers the southern portion of Napa and Sonoma counties. The region encompasses 36,900 acres of which there are almost 8,000 acres planted to vineyards. The AVA is bordered by the Napa River on the east, the Southern Pacific line on the south, the Sonoma Mountains on the west and the Mayacamas on the north. This is an area that has little in common with its more famous northern neighbors in climate or soils, but does share their ability to produce great wines.
The climate of Carneros is one of the primary elements that make this region so special. Located near the north end of San Pablo Bay, this is an area of marine influence. The days are marked by cool, often foggy mornings, sunny and warm mid days, breezy afternoons and then often a return to fog overnight. The pronounced temperature fluctuations during a 24 hour period (called the diurnal shift) is credited with keeping the acidity in the grapes high enough to create wines with good structure, great liveliness on the palate and a clean finish. This is critical for the regions three most famous products; world class Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Sparkling Wines.
But it isn't just climate that makes the wines of the southern Napa and Sonoma different from the other regions of the area; it is the soils as well. The soils of this region tend to be shallow and high in clay, making them quite dense with little fertility. This means the vines must struggle for the most elemental of necessities, like water and nutrients. The two most common relatively young clay based soils are the Haire and Diablo series; both clay loams that offer just enough nutrients and water retention to make them perfect for the grapes of the region. There are pockets of volcanic and shale soils in addition to the clays making Carneros capable of producing a fairly wide range of grape varieties beyond Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, including the other two mainstays of the region; Syrah and Merlot.
Another critical element is the rolling hills with just 400 feet of relief from the land near the marshes to the foothills of the Mayacamas with many smaller hills in between. Not only do these give the wines of the region more interest and complexity; they allow for some incredible views out to the bay.
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