California Wines

In the 1970s, California mostly produced white wines of middling quality, with anything exotic pushed to the margins. By the 1990s, California was consistently producing some of the finest wines in the world.

It's only really in the past few decades that California has seriously considered matching grapes with the regions that each specific grape variety goes best. California has a wide variety of growing areas, but the two best are on the North Coast.

Napa Valley is the keystone of California wine regions, it was the first to produce wines that made Europe sit up and take notice (back in 1976), and has only gotten better since. Nowadays, Napa Valley mostly focuses on Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlots. The blending of these two kinds of grapes results in what the French refer to as Meritage wines. Pinot Noir and Zinfindel are also well represented.

Sonoma County is Napa's only serious competition for the finest overall wine region in California. Sonoma was the site of the first winery in California, and is somewhat cooler than Napa, although the drop in temperature doesn't seem to hurt their Cabernet Sauvigons or Zinfindels. Some of the best wines in Sonoma, though, are Chadonnays.