The Santa Lucia Highlands 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 winery, wineries and consumers. Winemakers frequently want their consumers to know abo ...

located in Monterey County, California. It is part of the larger Monterey AVA, and located in the Santa Lucia Mountains above the Salinas Valley. Over of vineyards are planted in the AVA, some as high as

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

, with about half of them planted to the

Pinot noir Pinot Noir () is a red-wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French language, French words for ''pine'' and ''black.' ...

grape. The region enjoys cool morning

fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus, and is heavily influ ...

and breezes from Monterey Bay followed by warm afternoons thanks to direct southern exposures to the sun. The Santa Lucia Highlands is also home to one of the vineyards that Wine Enthusiast Magazine named a California "Grand Cru" vineyard, as a recognition of the locations that produce the highest-quality wine grapes. The Sleepy Hollow Vineyard is owned by Talbott Vineyards and grow grapes for Talbott wines. The

River Road Wine Trail The River Road Wine Trail is a Salinas Valley roadway trail for wine-tasting following the River Road along the western banks of the Salinas River (California). It is not to be confused with the Great River Road Wine Trail that follows along the ...

runs along the length of this AVA.

References

American Viticultural Areas of California Geography of Monterey County, California Santa Lucia Range American Viticultural Areas 1990 establishments in California {{wine-region-stub