The Edna Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in San Luis Obispo County, California encompassing the rural town of Edna, which is south of the county seat San Luis Obispo and north of the small coastal town Arroyo Grande. It is a sub-region of the larger Central Coast AVA. The valley is roughly bounded by Lake Lopez to the south and Islay Hill to the north. The valley runs east to west, bounded to the west by the Santa Lucia Mountains. It is surrounded by

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates ...

mountains and characterized by black

humus In classical soil science, humus is the dark organic matter in soil that is formed by the decomposition of plant and animal matter. It is a kind of soil organic matter. It is rich in nutrients and retains moisture in the soil. Humus is the Lati ...

and

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay part ...

-rich soils. With moderate sunshine, cool maritime fog, and rich oceanic and volcanic soils, the Edna Valley appellation has California's longest growing season. The valley is kept cool by 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 contine ...

and morning fog. The extended growing season gives complex flavors to the grapes. Ripe grapes, Edna valley

The region is best known for

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 ...

, Pinot noir, and to a lesser extent, Syrah. Grapes were originally planted here by Spanish

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

in the early 19th century. The region saw a revival when new vineyards were planted in the early 1970s by what is known today as Edna Valley Vineyard. Edna Valley wines are often grouped with those of the contiguous

Arroyo Grande Valley AVA The Arroyo Grande Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in San Luis Obispo County, California. It is part of the larger Central Coast AVA with the area composrd of sedimentary and volcanic soils over a layer of bedrock known as the F ...

. The AVA was designated in 1982, with help from the founders of what today is the Edna Valley Vineyard.

References

External links

Touring the Edna Valley
at Sunset Magazine American Viticultural Areas of California Geography of San Luis Obispo County, California Valleys of San Luis Obispo County, California American Viticultural Areas American Viticultural Areas of Southern California 1982 establishments in California {{wine-region-stub