Many of us at Vint Hill Craft Winery and Tin Lizzie Wineworks are sourcing grapes from California. Kathy and I just returned from California where we visited vineyards and wineries in Suisun Valley, Lake County, Napa and Sonoma. The largest acreage of vineyards that we visited was Snows Lake Vineyards in Lake County. Snows Lake has 810 acres under vine. Their clients include wineries such as Rosenblum, Cakebread, Dynamite, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars and La Famiglia. The vineyards were beautiful, well kept and picturesque. While in Lake County we also visited Fortress Vineyards, Brassfield Estate Winery and Langtry Estate and Vineyards.
All the vineyards visited in Lake County are considered high elevation. The vineyards ranged in elevation between 1500 feet and 2400 feet. This puts them above the fog line. We noticed that more grapes had already been harvested than in the other regions. Lake County vineyards are warmer than Napa, Sonoma and Suisun Valley to the south. The grapes ripen a couple weeks earlier. The Cabernet Sauvignon grapes fermenting in a bin at Vint Hill Craft Winery looked very good. They were from a vineyard in Lake County.
Take a moment to view a short one-minute video of Lake County vineyards.
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