The San Pasqual Valley AVA is an

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 th ...

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 ...

. 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 The Peninsular Ranges (also called the Lower California province) are a group of mountain ranges that stretch from Southern California to the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula; they are part of the North American Coast Ranges, whic ...

, 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 ...

. San Pasqual Valley was the fourth wine region to be designated an

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 States ...

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 contine ...

, 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 und ...

-based soils that drain well,

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry (botany), berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non-Climacteric (botany), climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of ...

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 sequ ...

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 Basin, Mediterranean region, Central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern ...

'' with

Grenache Grenache () or Garnacha () is one of the most widely planted red wine grape varieties in the world.Niels Lillelund: ''Rhône-Vinene'' p. 25, JP Bøger – JP/Politikens Forlagshus A/S, 2004. . It ripens late, so it needs hot, dry conditi ...

Merlot Merlot is a dark blue–colored wine grape variety, that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name ''Merlot'' is thought to be a diminutive of ''merle'', the French name for the blackbird, probably a reference to t ...

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 Syrah (), also known as Shiraz, is a dark-skinned grape variety grown throughout the world and used primarily to produce red wine. In 1999, Syrah was found to be the offspring of two obscure grapes from southeastern France, Dureza and Mondeus ...

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 Viognier () is a white wine grape variety. It is the only permitted grape for the French wine Condrieu in the Rhône Valley.J. Robinson ''"The Oxford Companion to Wine"'' Third Edition pg 754 Oxford University Press 2006 Outside of the Rh ...

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 Hyd ...

on the east side of

I-15 I15 may refer to: * Interstate 15, a north–south Interstate Highway in the United States of America * Polikarpov I-15 The Polikarpov I-15 (russian: И-15) was a Soviet biplane fighter aircraft of the 1930s. Nicknamed ''Chaika'' (''russian: � ...

, 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