September is California Wine Month

 Over 20 years ago, the California State Legislature gave us a whole month to celebrate wine!

image from sonomawinegrape.org

  What are we celebrating during California Wine Month?

California makes almost 90% of America's wines. The wine business generates $170 billion in economic activity annually; $73 billion of that within the state. 

California is the fourth-largest wine producer in the world, behind Italy, France, and Spain.

The wine industry has been part of California history for 250 years.

There are 620,000 acres of vineyards spread across 49 of the state's 58 counties. There are 6,000 grape growers, employing many others to maintain and harvest the wine grapes.

Every year, 25 million people visit the 6,200 tasting rooms. So it's not just the growing, production, and selling of the wine that contributes to the economy, but also wine consumers wanting to visit and see where the magic happens. That magic is from a lot of hard work.

Other states have started or built up their own wine industries, largely based on the success and knowledge of California's wine industry and schools. It's not just UC Davis for a wine degree. There are a dozen West Coast universities with wine programs, plus several in other states. Many community colleges offer coursework and two-year degrees, with Santa Rosa Junior College (Sonoma County) and Napa Valley College the most notable. Sonoma State University offers an undergraduate degree and Masters in Business Administration to teach you how to successfully run a winery. It's not just about growing grapes and making wine, it's a business, too.

Evening event at Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival
image from valleyofthemoonvintagefestival.org

  How to celebrate California Wine Month

Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival in Sonoma, Sept 25-27. Since 1897 this festival has been the big event in the town of Sonoma, along with their 4th of July parade that goes back to 1908. 

You can share your wine with friends. Or open a bottle tonight. No need for a special celebration, or you can just celebrate making it through another day at work.

Learn something about grape growing, such as soils, microclimates, or how the right time to pick the fruit is determined.

Learn something about wine making, such as how Chardonnay is made, why barrels are used for many wines, or learn about the many temporary harvest interns from all over the world that come here to work.

Experiment with food and wine pairing. Do something more radical than white wine with seafood and red with beef. Have friends over for dinner and serve the meal with three very different wines and see what happens.

Host a wine tasting with friends. Keep it informal, keep it fun, and learn about wine at the same time. 

Buy from the source. Buying wine from the people that made it is just as fun as buying fruits and vegetables at the farmers' market. Maybe more fun. 

There's a wine for everyone. There is so much diversity in California with thousands of grape growers, thousands of winemakers, many microclimates and soil types, a hundred varietals of grapes grown, and over 150 grape growing appellations. 

Visit a winery and see where your wine comes from
image from Visit Napa Valley

 

Some info from sonomawinegrape.org & discovercaliforniawines.com