The Ramona Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area located northeast of the city of

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634, making it California's second-most populous county and the f ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, centered on the community of

Ramona ''Ramona'' is a 1884 American novel written by Helen Hunt Jackson. Set in Southern California after the Mexican–American War, it portrays the life of a mixed-race Scottish– Native American orphan girl, who suffers racial discrimination and ...

. It was designated the 162nd American Viticultural Area in January, 2006 by the

United States Department of the Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States, where it serves as an executive department. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and ...

Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, statutorily named the Tax and Trade Bureau and frequently shortened to TTB, is a bureau of the United States Department of the Treasury, which regulates and collects taxes on trade and imports of alcoho ...

, which recognized the area for its distinctive

microclimate A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often with a slight difference but sometimes with a substantial one. The term may refer to areas as small as a few squ ...

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...

, and

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attributes. Approximately in area, it is long and wide. Geographically, the Ramona Valley is described as being a broad, flat valley ringed by hills and mountains that isolate it from the surrounding areas. The valley has an average vineyard elevation of and an annual average rainfall of .

Climate and geography

Located within the large multi-county South Coast AVA, Ramona Valley was the third AVA to be designated in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

, after San Pasqual Valley AVA in 1981 and

Temecula Valley AVA The Temecula Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area in the Temecula Valley, located in southwestern Riverside County, California. History Winemaking in the Temecula area was revived in the late 1960s with plantings made by the Brookside ...

in 1984. In an interview on

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

, Bill Schweitzer of the Ramona Valley Vineyard Association described the area's exceptional

viticultural Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...

characteristics as being partially derived from its unique location of being east of 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 contin ...

and west of the Colorado Desert.

Wine production

Currently the Ramona Valley AVA is home to more than 80 commercial

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineya ...

s with over of varieties of both white and red grapes in cultivation. As of 2016, there were over 20 bonded wineries operating in the AVA.

References

{{reflist

External links

Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau's published ruling

Ramona Valley Winery Association
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Ramona Vineyard Association
American Viticultural Areas of California American Viticultural Areas of Southern California Ramona, San Diego County, California Valleys of San Diego County, California Geography of San Diego County, California American Viticultural Areas 2006 establishments in California

Climate and geography

Wine production

See also

References

External links