Rim Rock Now

A little bit of history and a little bit of economics helps us understand the popularity of Lake County’s volcanic soil and ideal climates for growing wine grapes.  There’s no better resource for this information than WineBusiness.com, from where we’ve excerpted the following brief introduction.  Visit their website for more information on Lake County and it’s 135 grape growers.

Lake County was a major wine producer before Prohibition, with more than 10,000 acres of vineyards and 28 wineries, according to the Lake County Winegrape Growers. Most were replaced by pears, which the county became known for.

The wine business languished, though over time, a few visionaries, like Guenoc’s Orville Magoon, Jess Jackson and Robert Romiguiere, developed new vineyards. Most of these vineyards were in the Big Valley, a low-lying area west of dormant Mount Konocti, and in Guenoc Valley, an isolated area in the southeastern part of the county similar in climate and soils to Pope Valley in Napa County. Both are rich valleys that tend to produce vegetative vines, but they’re fine for Sauvignon Blanc, and Lake County has been best known for supplying excellent inexpensive grapes to many wineries outside the countyusually without credit. These vineyards, however, didn’t produce impressive red wine in general, the most lucrative wine in the last few decades.

Of late, new growers have been developing new vineyards, choosing better hillside locations for the red vines. They are especially suitable for Cabernet Sauvignon and other Bordeaux varietals as well as Petite Sirah and Zinfandel, which are making a comeback, as well as Syrah.

The county’s 135 growers once again manage almost 10,000 acres of planted vineyards, though not all are producing. There are 10 wineries, most less than two years old. Fully 85 percent of its fruit, however, is shipped to wineries in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino. Though Lake’s growers have clocked relatively little recent history, their results demonstrate that parts of the county can produce wines of high quality and at significantly lower land costs than in Napa or Sonoma nearby.

It’s reported that land in Red Hills costs about $3,500 per acre when major growers started buying it, but grower Clay Shannon said that planted vineyard land now sells for about $30,000 to $35,000 per acre, though few owners are selling land.