Napa's Monocropping vs Sonoma's Diversity

  In agriculture monocropping is defined as growing one crop year after year on the same land. Obviously with vines you can't exactly rotate crops. What I mean here is the varieties of grapes  planted in the vineyards.

Napa Valley vineyards. You're probably looking at Cabernet

  Napa Valley is 80% planted to red grapes with Cabernet Sauvignon being about half of the total acreage (no surprise). Chardonnay is a distant second at less than 15%. Merlot about 10% (much of it blended into the Cabs). A couple decades ago Cabernet was only 30% of the total. Why the huge increase? Dollars. In Napa Cabernet is king. Napa Valley is quite dependent on Cab staying on top. The good news for Napa and the bad news for consumers is the prices for Napa Cab continue to increase.

  Sonoma County, because it sits on the Pacific coast, has a more varied climate and more varied soils and a bit more diversity in the vineyards. Sonoma is about 25% Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir are both about 20% of the total, then Zinfandel at less than 10%.

  As Cabernet's acreage is growing in Napa, Pinot Noir is in Sonoma County. Pinot acreage has been increasing substantially in California for the past 15 years. Sonoma County grows more Pinot than anywhere else in the state.