Sloughhouse AVA
Sloughhouse is an American Viticultural Area (AVA
Name Evidence
In 1850, Jared D. Sheldon built a roadhouse, hotel and stagecoach station along a slough on the Cosumnes River, hence the name "Slough House." The roadhouse was initially destroyed by a fire in 1890, but was rebuilt. Surviving numerous rebuilds after subsequent fires, it is now a registered California Historical Landmark. Today, the Slough House is a restaurant. Modern usage of the Sloughhouse name, according to petition evidence, is also seen in the names of the Sloughhouse Resource Conservation District, the Sloughhouse Fire Protection District, and the Sloughhouse Area Genealogical Society. The USGS Geographic Names Information System database lists "Sloughhouse" as a populated place in Sacramento County, California. The USGS Sloughhouse quadrangle map shows the hamlet of Sloughhouse along California [State Route 16|State Road 16] on the Township 7 and 8 North line, between Ranges 6 and 7 East. Sloughhouse Road, a secondary road, is shown on the USGS Elk Grove and Sloughhouse maps within the viticultural area boundary lines.History
William Daylor, one of John A. Sutter's cooks, who came upon the valley when out looking for some of his boss's livestock on a summer evening in 1840, according to a 1880 history of Sacramento County. The valley was and is a fertile floodplain for the Cosumnes River and Deer Creek. It looked good to Daylor, but was already populated by some of the area's Miwok Indians. "Daylor not being desirous of making any closer acquaintance at that time, did not descend into the valley," the Thompson and West history reports.Within a few years, William Daylor returned with a friend, Jared Dixon Sheldon, a naturalized Mexican citizen, who heard of the Cosumnes River Valley from Daylor. Sheldon, was given a Mexican land grant of nearly by the government in Monterey, Mexico. The grant was known as the Ochumnes or Sheldon Grant. The area was populated by the indigenous Miwoks, who became workers for Sheldon. Sheldon soon planted the area around Deer Creek by seeds supplied by John Sutter. The first harvests were bountiful and Jared Sheldon and William Daylor quickly saw the need and built a gristmill. Unfortunately this also required a dam to be built. Gold miners, outraged at the fact a dam was to be built, wrote Sheldon letters and had several meetings with him to protest the building of the dam and telling him their diggings would be flooded. Sheldon, despite the protests, built the dam in 1851 and the miners diggings were flooded. To protect the dam, his mill and land, Sheldon built a fort. Miners soon captured the fort and attempted to blow up the dam unsuccessfully. Sheldon returned with his men and began a battle with the miners who were still trying to destroy the dam. Sheldon's men fired the first shots and soon two of Sheldon's men along with Sheldon, himself, were killed.
"Sloughhouse" began as a roadhouse/hotel and stagecoach station built by Jared Sheldon on Deer Creek in 1850. Today, the Sloughhouse is no a longer a hotel but the "Slough House Kitchen" restaurant. Pictures of Sheldon, William Daylor and Thomas Rhoades adorn the walls of the restaurant. Jared Sheldon married Catherine, a daughter of Thomas Rhoades and William Daylor was married to Rhoades' other daughter, Sarah.
Terroir
Topography
The area surrounding Sloughhouse is often referred to as the "Cosumnes River Valley". The Cosumnes River runs right through the town of Sloughhouse.Sloughhouse viticultural area has the most diverse terrain of the seven
proposed viticultural areas. A naturally woodland environment with gently rolling hills, flat creek and river valleys, plains, and an alluvial fan characterizes the area. The Sloughhouse viticultural area ranges in elevation from a low of in its southwest region to a high of in its northeast region, according to the USGS maps. The northeast region of Sloughhouse, which has the highest elevations in the area, slopes upward and becomes the bedrock-based foothills of the Sierra Range. These higher elevations are similar to Borden Ranch to the south, but contrast with the lower elevations of between of the Alta Mesa viticultural area to the west.
Three significant waterways, the Cosumnes River and its Deer Creek and Laguna tributaries flow west from the Sierra Foothills through the Sloughhouse viticultural area. Deer Creek constitutes the northeastern boundary line of the
viticultural area, as noted in the petition's boundary description. Deer Creek, according to USGS maps, then meanders southwesterly through the interior of the Sloughhouse area. The Cosumnes River runs roughly parallel to Deer Creek and through the approximate middle of the Sloughhouse viticultural area. Deer Creek eventually joins the Cosumnes River to the west of the viticultural area. The Laguna forms the south boundary line for the Sloughhouse viticultural area and joins the Cosumnes River and Deer Creek to the west of the area.
Climate
The petition used statistics and data from the Lodi, Sacramento and especially the Folsom weather stations, located close to the Sloughhouse viticultural area. The petition explains that the Sloughhouse viticultural area has a climate distinguishable from the surrounding viticultural areas due to its combination of warm growing season temperatures and heavy winter rains.The Sloughhouse area, at, is the warmest of the seven viticultural areas within the existing Lodi viticultural area. The average degree day total for
the Sloughhouse area, according to the petition, is more than 200 degree days
higher than that of the Alta Mesa area to the immediate west and more than 300 degree days higher than that of the cooler Borden Ranch and Clements Hills areas to the south. The Sloughhouse viticultural area, the petition claims, experiences little marine sea breeze influence as compared to the other viticultural areas to the west, which are closer to the Sacramento Delta. Also, the Alta Mesa "table-top" landform, to the immediate west, acts as a buffer between the west-to-east marine breezes and the Sloughhouse area. The Sloughhouse viticultural area receives more rain, annually according to petition
documentation, than the other viticultural areas. The petition states that to the
west of the Sloughhouse area, the Alta Mesa viticultural area averages annual rainfall, and, to the south, the Borden Ranch viticultural area averages annual rainfall. Also, other viticultural areas discussed in this document average as low as of annual rainfall. In addition, fog is less frequent in the Sloughhouse viticultural area
than in the adjacent lower elevation and cooler Alta Mesa viticultural
area to the west, the petition states. The upland environment, with less cooling
marine influence and warmer temperatures, discourages the formation of fog.