Napa Valley AVA
Napa Valley AVA ( American Viticultural Area or Napa Valley, recognized since 28 January 1981) is a wine region in Napa County in the U.S. state of California and is part of the regional North Coast AVA. Due to the Mediterranean climate thrive wines that count since the 1960s, the world's best and are generated primarily from Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Chardonnay grapes in the Napa Valley. Many well-known wineries are based in the Napa Valley. Built in 1861, a native of Prussia Charles Krug the first commercial winery in St. Helena. After several setbacks such as the phylloxera disaster and the alcohol prohibition in particular the outstanding performance by some wines could give new impetus to the field in the wine jury of Paris in 1976.
Geography
The valley is flanked to the west and north of the Mayacamas Mountains and east of the Vaca Mountains. The valley rises from the bay of San Pablo in the south at sea level slowly to a height of 110 meters above sea level at Calistoga at the foot of Mount Saint Helena in the Mayacamas Mountains on. Oakville and Rutherford are practically centrally within the Napa River valley below.
In the south of the valley is dominated by sedimentary soils that were deposited during some periods of flooding the bay of San Pablo. In the north, however, there is volcanic soil.
Climate
The climate of Napa Valley is influenced by several factors:
- A location on the Pacific The closer, the cooler it gets. The day temperature inland by nearly 0.5 ° C higher lying than on the coast.
- Due to cuts in parallel to the coast mountain ranges of the California Coast Ranges cool morning fog and cooling sea breezes can locally penetrate into the interior. This effect explains why the south lies Los Carneros AVA is cooler than the more northerly areas.
- The east side of the valley is much drier than the western, because the winter storms from the interior rather rain down on the western slopes.
Wine tourism
Napa Valley has a total of 4.7 million overnight visitors who come for the wine tourism. Thus, the wine-growing region belongs behind Disneyland the most popular tourist attraction in California. The Highway 29 east of the Silverado Trail running are popular feeder to a variety of famous wineries.