The country is great and the weather are not the same in San Diego , south, or Mendocino to the north. To better understand the Californian vineyards, you should know that the country has two important geographical features:
- The first is the constant influence of the Pacific Ocean, whose coastal waters are very cold (it is always amazing to watch dozens of sea lions in the Bay Area Francisco). Yet the California lies far south, at the same latitude as Spain or North Africa. The sun shines every day, warming the air like a sauna. However, around noon, a sea mist rises on the horizon for quickly turn into a fog bank jutting out into the bay from San Francisco, as drawn by some invisible force.
hot weather, fog affects all mountain valleys overlooking the bay of San Francisco. The air warms and rises, creating a vacuum that sucks the cold air from the Pacific, and with it the fog formed off by the morning sun. In the warm California without this means of cooling the grapes, it would be impossible to extend the ripening period and thus produce good wines .
Also, all areas producing good wines (with the exception of two areas where altitude plays the same role) are they located where a breach in the Coast Range creates a funnel in which this coverage rushes of cold air. And, curiously, as we move south, the cold becomes more intense .
The most northerly vineyards of Mendocino County are considerably warmer than the Salinas Valley, 160 miles south of San Francisco. The funnel effect is also a violent gale in winter. Moreover, there often leaves grapes ripen until November . 160 km further south, to Los Angeles in the Santa Maria Valley, the grapes ripen easily and must fight to get a bit of sun through the fog.
- The second geographical feature of California is a mountain range called the Coastal Range. When no gap creating a funnel effect, the valleys behind the chain prove real furnaces. Although a climate arid and burning makes it impossible to produce good wine (with the exception of ersatz "ports" and "sherry"), irrigation (as felt doubt) gives a huge amount of grapes, which ripen very quickly and, thanks to dry air, are hardly attacked by rampant rot in vineyards wettest. The Central Valley stretches 640 kilometers, practically to Los Angeles. Sacramento to Bakersfield, about 200 km wide, is concentrated the bulk of production in California.
Irrigation is one of the factors that leave me puzzled: the pretext that it is too hot, is it necessary, watering or irrigating? Is this the kind who wanted the vine grows here? On this principle, why not grow the vine in greenhouse or, better still, downright laboratory. I'll let you think about that.
Grapes
Merlot The Merlot of California has a dress from garnet to dark red fruit aroma frankly e and bouquet in shades of grass, gooseberry and cherry.
Cabernet - Sauvignon
It grows in well-drained soil and a climate temperate and yields are 7.5 12 tonnes per hectare. The Cabernet - Sauvignon of California has a full flavor and a long palate, a structure strong enough , which are perceived tannins and a certain bitterness.
Zinfandel
I've never been packed by Zinfandel rosé (or white). By cons, it is certainly with the reds from this grape that was really felt to discover a new style wine here. It produces a fragrant wine, intense, round and full in the mouth.
Pinot Black
It is grown mainly in coastal regions (Carneros, Monterey, Santa Barbara ...). The yields are 5 to 7.5 tons per hectare on average.
Chardonnay grape widely planted in a California (he has yet better in coastal areas), and its yield is 5 tons per hectare for a good year. Chenin blanc
Or French Colombard . Over 80% are concentrated in the hot Central Valley where the grapes are vinified table wine cheap.
Sauvignon
The Sauvignon white, also known under the name Fumé Blanc is deemed was introduced in California there are over one hundred years in gravelly soils around the Bay of San Francisco. The designations
Do not compare California appellations to those of France, the Germany or Italy, much more stringent.
1 /. " California," where 100% of the grapes in a wine must come from the State of California . The wines bearing that name are often derived from a mixture from different regions of the state and may also have a vintage.
2 /. A political subdivision, the county. For example, the Mendocino County . A minimum of 75% of the grapes must come from the county. Grapes are grown in 47 of the 58 counties in California . The designations
multi-counties are permitted provided that the percentages of grapes harvested in each county are shown on the label.
3 /. The AVA (American Viticultural Area), a geographical subdivision : A minimum of 75% of the grapes must come from this area.
4 /. The names of individual vineyards where 95% of wine grapes such must originate from this vineyard.
Another way to divide the wine regions of California is to use the average temperature. The California has a system of classifying wine regions depending on the amount of heat which vines are exposed during the growing season. This system has the unit "degree days", the temperature of 10 ° C being the base level. The average temperature above 10 ° C each day of the period of growth vines is multiplied by the number of days in that period, giving a total of "degree days".
In this system of degree days, the California is divided into several climatic regions. Region 1 is cooler (less than 2500 degree days), Region 2 is warmer (250 000 degrees 1-3 days), Region 3 (of 3 001-3 500 degree days), and Region 4 (350 1-4 000 degrees or more days). The wines
After the disastrous fashion wine coolers (a mixture of wine, juice fruit and sparkling water), the country is trying to absorb the excess production of grapes from the Central Valley through a policy of large-scale winery in other words, to "American".
Unfortunately, most current Californian wines are sold under a single brand name or under a generic name, without embarrassment. Without a genuine policy of vines, the wines quality are all virtually the same from international varieties, and (coincidence, surely), typically French. Imagine a wine of Burgundy , Another Provence, another of the Jura, the Loire or Southwest , all from the same grape?
In reality, the problem of "new" wine country is always the same: lack of historical references and gourmet, they make wine that works with varieties that are good, also and especially in France.
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