The Central Coast AVA is a large

American Viticultural Area An American Viticultural Area (AVA) is a designated wine grape-growing region in the United States, providing an official appellation for the mutual benefit of wineries and consumers. Winemakers frequently want their consumers to know about t ...

in the U.S. state of California that spans from Santa Barbara County in the south to the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...

in the north. The boundaries of the Central Coast include portions of six

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

. With around planted to wine grapes,

Chardonnay Chardonnay (, , ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand. For new ...

accounts for more than half of the total. Within this larger AVA are several smaller

appellation An appellation is a legally defined and protected geographical indication primarily used to identify where the grapes for a wine were grown, although other types of food often have appellations as well. Restrictions other than geographical bo ...

s that share the same cooling influence from the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the conti ...

Counties

Because U.S. county names automatically qualify as legal appellations of origin for wine, the following appellations do not require registration with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau: *

Contra Costa County ) of the San Francisco Bay , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = California , subdivision_type2 ...

Monterey County Monterey County ( ), officially the County of Monterey, is a county located on the Pacific coast in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is Salinas. Montere ...

San Luis Obispo County San Luis Obispo County (), officially the County of San Luis Obispo, is a county on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 282,424. The county seat is San Luis Obispo. Junípero Serra founded the Mis ...

* Santa Barbara County *

Santa Clara County Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County together ...

References

External links

California Central Coast AVA Wine Map

TTB AVA Map
{{Coord, 36, -121.2, region:US-CA_type:adm2nd_dim:500km, display=title * Geography of Contra Costa County, California Geography of Monterey County, California Geography of San Luis Obispo County, California Geography of Santa Barbara County, California Geography of Santa Clara County, California Geography of Santa Cruz County, California American Viticultural Areas of the San Francisco Bay Area American Viticultural Areas 1985 establishments in California