As a way to help kick off our event the right way, we decided to tell a little bit about all the talented winemakers on the west coast. Of course, that’s a very big job, since the west coast is the country’s wine Mecca. California alone currently makes 90% of all the wines made in America – that’s over 631 millions of barrels of wine in the year 2009 alone.
Making wine seems to be a skill that the west coast has mastered. Sparkling wines, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Pinot Grigio, Zinfandel, and Chardonnay are the more popular kinds of wine that the west coast, especially California, is famed for. However, few have heard of some of the more obscure wines that California vineyards house, for example, Syrahs. (Syrah wine is still relatively new to the California wine scene.)
The sheer amount of acreage devoted to winemaking in the west coast is enough to illustrate how seriously winemaking is taken. The North Coast, one of the largest viticultural areas in California, is approximately 3 million acres in size. Close seconds are the Sierra Foothills and the San Fransisco Bay. If you add up the acreage of the three largest viticultural areas in California, you will get a total of over 7 million acres. Grapes of all kinds are used in winemaking, and the west coast houses many different types.
Chardonnay is the west coast’s most widely planted grape. Over 95,000 acres are devoted to this winemaking favorite alone. Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, a close second in popularity, are often cultivated in Napa, Sonoma County, and the Lodi-Woodbridge area. Zinfandel, another very popular wine grape, is commonly grown in San Joaquim and Sononoma. Some wines, such as Roses, use many different kinds of grapes for production.
The wine grape growing season is actually a year-round event. During the winter, vines go dormant, and flavor slowly builds up. Pruning often happens during both the winter and spring months. The spring season is possibly the most treacherous of all grape growing seasons. Frost may hurt young buds, so winemakers often go to great lengths to ensure that their crops won’t get destroyed. Different methods of “heating up” the vineyards exist. Growers begin to train their plants to climb trellises during this season as well. Summer months are when the actual grapes begin to appear. Veraison, or grapes beginning to show their colors, occurs during the later summer days.
Fall is definitely the king of the seasons when it comes to winemaking. Fall is harvesting season for grape growers throughout the west coast. Throughout the North Coast, Sonoma, Napa, and everywhere else, winemakers are selecting grapes for their vino. During the fall, grapes hang low from the vines, ready to be picked. Tourism spikes throughout the west coast for winemaking tours. Harvesting timing is one of the most difficult decisions winemakers have to make. Depending on when they harvest, the pH, sugar, acid, and flavor of the wine can be drastically different.
Year round, the west coast offers adventures in the form of wine. Every bottle tells a tale, and every grape has a story. Are you ready to enjoy all the different flavors and scents that this lush land has to offer?
