The San Pasqual Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area in northern

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 ...

. It is located in the

San Pasqual Valley San Pasqual Valley, historically spelt as San Pascual (Spanish for " Saint Paschal"), is the northernmost community of the city of San Diego. It is named for the Kumeyaay village of San Pasqual that was once located there. It is bordered on the ...

of the Peninsular Ranges, 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 ...

. San Pasqual Valley was the fourth wine region to be designated an American Viticultural Area when the AVA was created in 1981. The AVA is encroached on by the cities 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 ...

Poway Poway () is a city in San Diego County, California, United States. The unincorporated community became a city on December 1, 1980. Poway's rural roots influenced its motto "The City in the Country". The city has a population of 49,701 as of 2 ...

, and Escondido, resulting in relatively high land values but limited viticultural potential.

Climate

The AVA belongs to Region IV on the

Winkler scale The Winkler Index, sometimes known as the Winkler Scale or Winkler Regions, is a technique for classifying the climate of wine growing regions based on heat summation or growing degree-days. In the system, geographical areas are divided into five c ...

. The climate in this

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 boun ...

is desert-like but tempered by cool breezes 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 contin ...

, with long growing seasons (average temperatures above year-round), warm winters with nighttime lows rarely dipping below , and summers with daily highs rarely exceeding . With cooler evenings and

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

-based soils that drain well,

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus '' Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years a ...

s from this area are able to retain their colors and balanced

acidity In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a ...

Vineyards

The area is planted with a wide range of ''

Vitis vinifera ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, is a species of flowering plant, native to the Mediterranean region, Central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern Iran. There are curr ...

'' with Grenache, Merlot,

Sangiovese Sangiovese (, also , , ) is a red Italian wine grape variety that derives its name from the Latin ''sanguis Jovis'', "the blood of Jupiter". Though it is the grape of most of central Italy from Romagna down to Lazio (the most widespread grape ...

, Syrah,

Tempranillo Tempranillo (also known as Ull de Llebre, Cencibel, Tinto Fino and Tinta del Pais in Spain, Aragonez or Tinta Roriz in Portugal, and several other synonyms elsewhere) is a black grape variety widely grown to make full-bodied red wines in its ...

and Viognier being some of the most widely planted. The AVA is defined roughly to include both coasts of

San Dieguito River The San Dieguito River is a major river in Southern California, United States. Its headwaters rise on the southern slope of the Volcan Mountains in San Diego County and the river flows generally southwest for ,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hy ...

on the east side of I-15, between

and Escondido, up to an elevation of 500 feet. There are over 13 commercial vineyards in this AVA. * Rancho Guijito Vineyard * Forgotten Barrel Winery * San Pasqual Winery * Orfila Winery * Hungry Hawk Vineyard * Speckle Rock Vineyards * Espinosa Vineyards and Winery * Wicked Snakes Winery * Domain Artefact Vineyard & Winery * ZXQ Vineyards and Winery * Cordiano Winery * The Ferrara Winery * Cordiano Winery

References

American Viticultural Areas of Southern California Geography of San Diego County, California Peninsular Ranges Valleys of San Diego County, California American Viticultural Areas American Viticultural Areas of California 1981 establishments in California {{wine-region-stub