Nearly 60,000 acres of wine grapes were in the ground in 2018 in Sonoma County and about 45,000 in Napa County, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
From 2016 to 2018, wine grape acreage in every county has been relatively unchanged, except in San Mateo County where about 14 percent of acreage was lost. That was the biggest loss of any county.
Here’s how the counties rank by acres of wine grapes in 2018.
1. Sonoma County — 59,1932. Napa County — 45,4333. Solano County — 3,8324. Alameda County — 2,9145. Contra Costa County — 1,6446. Santa Clara County — 1,4747. Marin County — 1668. San Mateo County — 899. San Francisco — 0“Like most all the wine regions located along the California long coastline that have the cool marine breezes and fog, the Napa Valley and Sonoma County wine regions have an ideal mild climate where wine grapes can hang on the vines longer and develop deep color and flavor,” said Gladys Horiuchi, spokeswoman for the Wine Institute, which advocates for the California wine industry.
The long, cool growing season, paired with an array of more than 100 wine grape varieties and some 2,000 soil types statewide, help make California wines world class, the industry spokeswoman said.
Source: California Department of Food and Agriculture and U.S. Department of Agriculture
