Napa Valley
Fog at one end, heat at the other, Cabernet throughout.
Napa is thirty miles long and gets meaningfully warmer as you move north, because cool marine fog enters from the bay at the southern end and burns off progressively. That single gradient explains the sub-AVAs: Carneros at the cool south grows Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, while Calistoga at the hot north makes the most powerful Cabernet. Mountain fruit from Howell Mountain or Mount Veeder sits above the fog line entirely, producing smaller berries and firmer tannin than the valley floor.
Grapes grown here 7
What the region makes
Ripe cassis, sweet oak, plush tannin. The style that made Napa's reputation.
From above the fog line. Denser, more tannic, more structured and slower to open.
Cool southern end. Citrus and apple with more acidity than Napa's reputation suggests.
Worth knowing
At the 1976 Judgment of Paris, French judges in a blind tasting ranked Napa wines above Bordeaux and Burgundy. The result reshaped the global wine trade.
Napa became America's first designated AVA in 1981 and now contains sixteen nested sub-AVAs.
Try this region if you like bold, ripe, generous reds with polish.
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