CALIFORNIA

California is America's wine country. Its fog-drenched coastal hills and sunny valleys grow more than 90% of the wine made in U. S. And they produce an ever-increasing quantity of fine wines. Something you'd expect from a state that is the world's fourth largest wine producer.

California has 483,669 acres of grapes under cultivation. That's an area roughly the size of the state of Rhode Island. Three out of every four bottles of wine sold in America—and that includes wines imported from other countries—are California wine.

California wines owe much of their success to a diverse climate and geography. But it also took natural disaster, Prohibition, and bold investments to forge an industry.

The California wine industry today is about fine wine. In 1940, no Chardonnay grapes grew in California. Today 103,491 acres are planted.

The move to fine wine began in the early 1970s. It was fueled by California's famous win in 1976 in the Franco-Californian International Wine Tasting in Paris to commemorate the American Bicentennial.

For about 10 years, growers mixed and matched grapes to microclimates and soils. Many ideas worked. Cabernet Sauvignon grew well in the Napa Valley and in Sonoma's Alexander and Dry Creek valleys in warm areas. Chardonnay loved cooler places like the Russian River Valley, Monterey and Santa Barbara.

Wine from older vineyards—like Zinfandel grapes planted in the 1900s in Dry Creek and Sonoma valleys—soared in popularity. Today Dry Creek Valley, also known as the "Zin zone," is where many of these "old vines" grow.