Ever since the first vines were planted near San Diego in 1767, California has come to dominate the American domestic wine market and taken up its rightful place as one of the world's biggest wine-producing regions. California wine has benefited from the technical advances that came from the University of California 's wine school at Davis and, when allied to the region's unique Pacific climate, there is a vast and varied range of California wines.
California red wines
When looking at California red wines, many grape varieties have been tried and some have developed with considerable success. Cabernet Sauvignon is by far the most spectacular. As the leading Bordeaux grape, it was the one chosen by Californian winemakers most eager to copy Bordeaux classics. Although Cabernet Sauvignon rarely produces wines exactly in the Bordeaux mould, it has developed a rich Californian red wine with its own intense strong, blackcurranty, fairly tannic taste, making up for its slight lack of complexity with tremendous, satisfying fruit and flavour. On the other hand, use of the Pinot Noir grape in California red wines has been less spectacular with the best results coming from its being turned into sparkling wine. The star when considering California red wine is the Zinfandel grape and the resulting wine is marked by a pepperiness and a exhilarating blackberry and raspberry fruit.
California white wines
Moving on to California white wine, Chardonnay is the undoubted star, but not without its problems. Growing the vine is the easy bit, thriving readily in the hottest parts of California . However, attempts to reproduce white burgundy-style wines by throwing money at the problem only resulted in producing some impressive rich, creamy Chardonnays with a wild and wonderful blend of fruit flavours such as lychee, mango, peach, fig and melon. Sauvignon Blanc grapes make big Californian white wines, usually with a slight smoky flavour, but dry and fresh. In California Riesling grapes produce a range, from dull heavy dry wines to soft, sweet wonderfully honeyed late-harvest wines.
California is now predominantly a table wine producer. However, this is a fairly recent development, mirroring the worldwide growth in consumption of light table wine and the fading away of the heavy 'dessert', high-strength fortified wine market. In the early 1960's over half the production was of fortified wine. Now it is less than five per cent; table wines make up about 80 per cent of the total with sparkling wines taking up the rest. Many of California 's cheap wines are sold either with a simple brand name or by using the name of the grape variety such as Chardonnay.
Californian wine tours
The best way to experience the wide range of California wines is to sign up for one of the many California wine tours that take you through California wine country, from the Napa County and Sonoma County on the North coast to Alameda County and Santa Cruz County in the central coast area. Indeed limo wine tours are available in the Napa and Santa Barbara counties. For the more energetic there are bike tours available in California wine country such as in the Sierra foothills. On all these tours vineyard visits are accompanied by tastings and the chance to experience Californian wines with food. If you are not able to visit California wine country then the purchase of California wine baskets on-line will bring the experience readily into your home.
