San Bernabe AVA
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San Bernabe is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in southern
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 United States census, its population was 439,035. The county's largest city and county seat is ...
,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
. It lies within the larger, enlongated
Monterey AVA Monterey is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in eastern Monterey County, California. It was recognized on July 16, 1984 by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), Treasury after reviewing the petition submitted by the Mo ...
in the
Salinas Valley The Salinas Valley (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Valle de Salinas'') is one of the major valleys and most productive Agriculture, agricultural regions in California. It is located west of the San Joaquin Valley and south of San Francisco Bay and ...
sandwiched between the Salinas River to the east, and the
Santa Lucia Mountains The Santa Lucia Range (sæntə luˈsiːə) or Santa Lucia Mountains is a rugged mountain range in coastal Central California, running from Carmel southeast for to the Cuyama River in San Luis Obispo County. The range is never more than fro ...
to the west. The appellation’s northern border is Pine Canyon and is adjacent on its southern border to the San Lucas viticultural area. The appellation was established on August 30, 2004 by the
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 alc ...
(TTB),
Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry; in a business context, corporate treasury. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be ...
after reviewing two petitions submitted by Claude Hoover from Delicato Family Vineyards proposing the establishment of a new viticultural area to be named "San Bernabe", and the realignment of the adjacent, established San Lucas viticultural area. San Bernabe viticultural area encompasses of predominantly rolling hills with sandy soils with currently of cultivation on its sole vineyard. The realignment of the San Lucas viticultural area transferred of rolling, sandy land from its northwestern area to the southern San Bernabe area. The adjustment avoided splitting a large vineyard, preventing overlapping boundaries and simply creating a common boundary line between two AVAs.


History

San Bernabe is a well recognized name that has its origins in the early days of Spanish settlement in the colony of Monterey. Father Pedro Font, a member of the California expedition of
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...
Juan Bautista de Anza Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto (July 6 or 7, 1736 – December 19, 1788) was a Novohispanic/Mexican expeditionary leader, military officer, and politician primarily in California and New Mexico under the Spanish Empire. He is credited as on ...
, documented the initial reference to San Bernabe on March 8, 1776. He wrote in his diary, "we had passed a spur of the Sierra de Santa Lucia.... The road at first runs through a spur of mountains, until it descends to a wide valley called the ''Cañada de San Bernabé.'' The San Bernabé area land of two leagues was granted to Petronillo Rios, a former Mexican artillery Sergeant, in 1842. His wife, Catarina and their family began raising
cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...
and
crops A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. In other words, a crop is a plant or plant product that is grown for a specific purpose such as food, fibre, or fuel. When plants of the same species a ...
on this land and producing wine from their grapes. The Rios ranch, known as Rancho San Bernabé, eventually became a successful vineyard and wine producing property. Other Spanish land grant ranchos were created in the 1840's, but none in the area shared the recognition of Rancho San Bernabé as a significant vineyard property. In the 1970s, Prudential-Southdown purchased the San Bernabe acreage for vineyard development and, in 1988, the Indelicato family bought the lone San Bernabe vineyard for its premium and super-premium wine market potential.


Boundary

The Thompson Canyon and San Lucas U.S.G.S. quadrangle maps prominently identify the area as San Bernabe. The relevant
Thomas Guide ''Thomas Guide'' is a series of paperback, spiral-bound Atlas (cartography), atlases featuring detailed street maps of various large metropolitan areas in the United States, including Southern Idaho, Boise, Las Vegas metropolitan area, Las Vega ...
labels this area Rancho San Bernabe. The TopoZone map Web site identifies this rural area as San Bernabe. The San Bernabe vineyard estate occupies 52 percent of the viticultural area of the same name. The San Bernabe area boundary line connects benchmarks, mountain peaks, and other USGS map geographical features by using straight lines and several roads that follow the hilly terrain and soil changes. The San Bernabe viticultural area shares portions of its west and southwest boundary lines with the surrounding Monterey AVA, which is, in turn, surrounded by the expansive, multi-county Central Coast appellation. San Bernabe AVA shares its south boundary line with the realigned San Lucas AVA northwestern boundary. The transfer of from San Lucas to the San Bernabe viticultural area better defines the geographical differences between the established San Lucas and the new San Bernabe avoiding to split an existing vineyard between two AVAs.


Terroir


Topography

The San Bernabe viticultural area is located immediately south of King City in the long Salinas Valley. The approximately viticultural area occupies the valley floor and rolling foothills, extending west from the Salinas River to the Santa Lucia Mountains. Unique viticultural qualities of the San Bernabe area include its climate, water quality, wind-produced eolian soils, and rolling hills. The realigned from the San Lucas viticultural area possess similar eolian soils, rolling hills topography, and irrigation water quality as found in the new San Bernabe viticultural area.


Climate

The Salinas Valley forms a broad funnel for the strong, cool, afternoon marine winds coming off
Monterey Bay Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by about 75 miles (120 km), accessible via California S ...
during the warm months. The winds are drawn inland and south through the Salinas Valley by rising warm air that moderates the valley’s high and low temperatures to varying degrees, producing a graduated effect in the valley. As a result, the San Bernabe area is warmer than viticultural areas to the north, and closer to Monterey Bay, and cooler than the adjoining San Lucas viticultural area to the immediate south. The winds dissipate gradually as they travel inland from Monterey Bay and create a series of temperature-unique, grape-growing areas within the long Salinas Valley. San Bernabe, at south of the Monterey Bay, averages a 30-degree daily temperature variation, while Salinas, at from the Monterey Bay, averages a smaller 18-degree daily temperature variation. The cool night air helps retain the grapes’ acid and color, while the daily heat encourages ripeness and flavor. The San Bernabe area averages 30 frost- days annually, while Salinas, closer to Monterey Bay, averages only four frost-days. More rain falls at the Salinas Valley’s extreme north and south ends, with less falling in the region between, which includes the San Bernabe viticultural area. At the valley’s north end, the city of Salinas averages of annual rainfall, and, at the valley’s south end, Paso Robles averages . The San Bernabe area, between the two ends, averages only of annual rainfall. Irrigation water is used extensively in the AVA’s vineyards. The water comes from area reservoirs and contains only small amounts of carbonates and nitrates, which benefits the grapevines and soil. Toward the Monterey Bay, water quality declines as nitrate and carbonate levels increase.


Soil

In the San Bernabe viticultural area, grapes are grown below the elevation level on rolling hills in wind-produced eolian soils. The Oceano, Garey, and Garey-Oceano complex eolian soil types, which are well to excessively well-drained, dominate the San Bernabe viticultural area. Small niches of
alluvial Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...
soils, derived from the shale-based Santa Lucia Mountains, lie within the area and immediately to the north and south of the San Bernabe boundary lines. The larger, surrounding Monterey viticultural area consists of only 1.6 percent eolian soils, and the alluvial Lockwood series soils dominate the adjacent San Lucas viticultural area. The realignment area possesses a predominance of the wind-produced eolian soils that contrast to the alluvial type soils of the San Lucas area. Above and west of the 700-foot contour line, the soils are derived from the shale-based Santa Lucia Mountains. The bench soils along the east boundary are common to the Salinas River area. East of the San Bernabe viticultural area boundary line, the Gabilan Mountain Range includes
calcareous Calcareous () is an adjective meaning "mostly or partly composed of calcium carbonate", in other words, containing lime (mineral), lime or being chalky. The term is used in a wide variety of Science, scientific disciplines. In zoology ''Calcare ...
sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...
,
shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...
and
siltstone Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility. Although its permeabil ...
, which come from a different source material, according to the petition.


Viticulture

The San Bernabe Vineyard estate, owned by Delicato Family Wines, has cultivating grapes and sits almost entirely within the San Bernabe viticultural area. A small portion of the vineyard estate, outside the San Bernabe boundaries, is unsuitable for grape cultivation. According to the Delicato Family Vineyards petition, the San Bernabe vineyard estate is recognized as the largest continuous vineyard estate under a single ownership in the world. However, company officials later said it’s likely number three, behind Caviro in
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
and Bodegas Virgen de las Viñas in
Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
.


References

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External links


Delicato Family Wines

TTB AVA Map
American Viticultural Areas of Monterey County, California Salinas Valley 2004 establishments in California