Clear Lake AVA
History
Although the local Pomo tribes were familiar with Vitis californica vines, the first winegrape vineyards in the area were planted by European American settlers in the 1870s, and in 1884 totaled about. One of the county's earliest viticulturists was a Frenchman, "Professor" William Claudius Mottier, who near Harbin Springs experimented in the early 1870s with grafting European varieties on californica rootstocks, notably "Carbonet Malbec" and Mourvèdre. Mottier's wine is said to have earned Arpad Haraszthy's praise. Another early viticulturist was Serranus Clinton Hastings, who reportedly farmed of vineyards in the Upper Lake area and had a capacity winery and distillery in 1886. He and his brothers eventually acquired more acreage in the region, but the winery ceased operation in 1900.Reported varieties planted in the 1880s feature Zinfandel, Charbono, Riesling, Golden Chasselas, and Burger, grown notably in a 300-acre vineyard planted by the California Agricultural and Improvement Association in the Lower Lake area. In 1907, Lake County reported 7 wineries and a production of.
There were over thirty wineries when Prohibition was enacted dealing a serious blow to Lake County's viticulture industry. Wineries were closed and most vineyards were uprooted and replaced with walnut and pear orchards which have remained significant although secondary crops in the region. Some vineyards were replanted after the 1933 Repeal. A 1953 county agricultural report lists of grapes, while walnuts accounted for and pears for. Lake County grapes would be sent to neighboring counties for vinification and bottling, to operations such as Fetzer Vineyards or Parducci Winery in Mendocino County. In 1972, a phylloxera control ordinance was passed to address the ongoing pest problem affecting many North Coast vineyards. The decade saw a rapid uptick in vineyard plantings, with 532 acres of bearing grapevines in 1974, 1,237 acres the following year, and 2,680 by 1979.
In 1977, the Lower Lake Winery, the first to open in the county since Prohibition, inaugurated its first crush. In 1979, Albert Moorhead built Konocti Winery in Lakeport. By 1980, 2,990 acres of vineyards had been planted in the county and Lake Wine Producers had been formed to promote the use of local grapes. Lake County Vintners was spun off that group, a co-op of 34 wine growers which took an interest in Konocti Winery.
Guenoc Valley, the county's initial appellation in 1981 followed by Clear Lake AVA. In the early 1980s, Jess Jackson founded Chateau Du Lac in Lakeport, which would become the foundation for the Kendall-Jackson brand. In 1987, the county counted five winery tasting rooms: Stuermer Winery, Konocti Cellars and Kendall-Jackson in Lakeport, and Guenoc and Channing Rudd Cellars in Middletown. By 1989, Shed Horn Cellars, located south of Middletown, had joined the list.
Having outgrown its Lakeport location, in 1993 Kendall-Jackson moved most of its operations to Windsor, in Sonoma County. In 1996, Jed Steele, who had worked for Kendall-Jackson in Lakeport until 1990 and had since already started his own label as well as consulted for Wildhurst Vineyards in Kelseyville, purchased Konocti Winery.
A slow resurgence of the Lake County wine industry in the late 1990s and 2000s saw the establishments of new wineries, notably Wildhurst Winery, Brassfield Estate Winery, Shannon Ridge, Céago, Gregory Graham Wines, Chacewater Winery, and Six Sigma Ranch and Winery. New AVAs were recognized by the TTB: Napa Valley-based Andy Beckstoffer was instrumental in the creation of the Red Hills AVA in 2004, when he acquired over, and High Valley AVA, where Brassfield Estate and Shannon Ridge already owned acreage, was established the following year.
Wildfires, in particular the 2015 Valley Fire and the 2018 Mendocino Complex Fire, have impacted Lake County's wine industry over the years. While the physical damage to vines has been minimal The Mendocino Complex Fire is estimated to have cost the county's growers over $37 million. The Lake County Winegrape Commission has been collaborating with UC Davis, public agencies, laboratories and other wine groups to investigate the effects of wildfire smoke on crops.
Terroir
Topography
Clear Lake viticultural area is distinguished from the surrounding areas on the basis of elevation, watershed and climate. The Mendocino National Forest on the northeastern boundary and the Mayacamas Mountain Range on the southwestern boundary geographically isolates Clear Lake from surrounding areas. Both of thesemountain areas have heavily forested rugged terrains. In addition, because it is
Federally controlled land, the Mendocino National Forest is unavailable for cultivation. The viticultural area is rimmed by steep surrounding mountains ranging in heights to over. The prominent inactive volcanic mountain, Mt. Konocti at, rises from the western edge of Clear Lake and dominates the countryside. The soil around the vicinity of Mt. Konocti consists of hillsides composed of rich volcanic alluvial types that are well suited for
grape-growing. The lake itself, which is centrally located within the viticultural area is above sea level and the largest natural body of fresh water in California. Because of its size and location, Clear Lake has a demonstrable influence on the grape-growing areas immediately surrounding it. The currently cultivated vineyards around the lake are located at elevations of on mostly flat or gently rolling benchlands in uniform deep sandy loam and clay loam soils. In comparision, the vineyard areas of Mendocino County located to the west of Clear Lake have average elevations of less than and the vineyards of Naps and Sonoma Counties located to the south are less than above sea level.
Climate
The Clear Lake viticultural area is close enough to the Pacific Ocean to be influenced by the maritime coastal air that flows through the gaps in the mountains located to the west. The coastal air flows gently across Clear Lake, cooling the area surrounding it in the summer. The air flow does not penetrate the high mountains to the east of Clear Lake. On the east side of that mountain area the climate is much warmer, with little air flow. The Clear Lake viticultural area has a unique climate pattern, different than the other north coastal areas. The feature distinguishing Clear Lake from the surrounding areas is the unique influence of the Clear Lake watershed. Clear Lake serves to moderate the temperatures in the appellation throughout the year by creating both a favorable-warming temperature influence in the winter and a cooling influence in the summer. Clear Lake's cold nights offset the daytime heat which makes the viticultural area uniformly cooler than anywhere else in the surrounding north coastal counties. Also, the absence of wind and fog conditions makes the Clear Lake viticultural area different from the surrounding areas. According to the publication entitled "Climatography of the United States. No. 81-4, Decennial Census of U.S. Climate," the growing season in Clear Lake is 223 days which is shorter than the surrounding areas. The average rainfall per year for the Clear Lake area is about. The average annual rainfall at the Middletown area of Lake County located to the south of the viticultural area is about. The adjacent counties of Sonoma and Mendocino have rainfalls averaging per year, respectively.Soils
The soils are classified by the National Cooperative Soil Survey as the Clear Lake series consisting of very deep, poorly drained soil that formed in fine textured alluvium derived from mixed rock sources. Clear Lake soils are in flood basins, flood plains and in swales of drainageways. Slopes are 0 to 5 percent.Three major rock types within the area are Franciscan Formation, Cenozoic sedimentary rocks and alluvium Cenozoic volcanic rocks. Franciscan Formation contains altered mafic volcanic rocks, deep-sea cherts, greywacke sandstones, limestones, serpentinites, shales, and high-pressure metamorphic rocks. Three characteristics of valley soils in the Clear Lake area are formed in alluvial sediments loam and clay loam: Manzanita: a dark brown/reddish brown, deep soils. Still: deep soils formed in mixed alluvium clay loam. Talmage: dark brown/black soils of poor fertility found on gently sloping floodplains with gravelly sandy loam.
Viticulture
Since the reemergence Lake County viticulture in the 1960s, most grapes harvested in the area were processed in neighboring counties for vinification. Currently, 80% of the county's fruit is sent to Napa County. TTB rules allow for up to 15% of grapes from another area to be blended into a wine that can be labeled an appellation name, and the much lower prices for Lake County grapes have made them an attractive blending proposition for wineries in more prestigious wine regions. In 2023, Lake County Cabernet Sauvignon brought on average $2,321 per ton, and Sauvignon Blanc averaged $1,425 per ton.Some local grapes are also used in wines labelled North Coast, as Lake County is a sub-appellation within the multi-county AVA, or even simply the state appellation. Napa Valley or Sonoma County-based wineries sourcing from the region include Francis Ford Coppola Winery, Trinchero Family Estates, Hagafen Cellars, Arnot-Roberts, Conn Creek or Kendall-Jackson which also has vineyards in Lake County. As of May 2024, the county is resident to about 20 bonded wineries and a number of operations have vineyards and focusing on labels bearing Lake County appellation, even if their wine is made in neighboring Napa, Mendocino or Sonoma counties, such as, Obsidian Ridge, Fore Family Vineyards, Dancing Crow Vineyards, Wild Diamond Vineyards and Sol Rouge.
Through marketing efforts from the Lake County Winegrape Commission, the Lake County Winery Association and regional vintners like the late Jed Steele and Andy Beckstoffer, who heavily invested in the Red Hills appellation, Lake County appellations are used more often on the local winery labels.