California Wine

California is America's most important winemaking state. From North to South, there are an abundance of regions that are capable of producing outstanding wines.

The most famous grape growing area of California is the Napa Valley, north of San Francisco. Nearly to Napa's stature is the neighboring Sonoma County. Each of those areas have subregions that have their own specialties, though Napa is more tied to Cabernet Sauvingon while Sonoma, being far larger and having a coastline, is more diverse.

Further south, Monterey and Santa Barbara have also had great success in producing fine wine. Santa Barbara's success was celebrated in the movie Sideways, which is also credited with finally making American Pinot Noir commercially successful.