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7 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Where exactly is Napa County?
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Starting from San Francisco Bay, Napa runs 34 miles (54 kilometers) north and west of the foothills of Mount St. Helena. Flanking it are the Sonoma Valley to the west and Lake Berryessa to the east.
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What is the climate like in Napa County?
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(p487)
This ranges from cool (Region I) near the Bay, in the often foggy Carneros District, to warm (Region III) in the northern section of the Napa Valley and in Pope Valley. |
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What is the aspect of Napa County?
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(p487)
Vines are mostly planted on the valley floors but some are cultivated on slopes. The altitude of the valley floors ranges from barely 17 feet (5 meters) above sea level at Napa itself, to 230 feet (70 meters) at St. Helena, and 400 feet (122 meters) at Calistoga in the north. The wooded western slopes provide afternoon shade, which adds to the tempering effect of altitude and so favors white grapes, whereas the eastern slopes favor red varieties. |
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What is the soil like in Napa County?
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(p487)
Fertile clay and silt loams in the south of the region, and gravel loams of better drainage and lower fertility in the north. |
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What are the winemaking methods and techniques of Napa County like?
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There is a vast range of wineries here, from a small number of large firms employing the latest high-tech methods, to an increasing number of small boutique wineries. The latter have limited production, based on traditional methods, although often with judicious use of modern techniques.
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When was Napa Valley first planted with winemaking vines? (As far as we know.)
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It is hard to believe that Napa was planted after Sonoma, but it was, and by some 13 years; in 1838 a trapper from North Carolina, George Yount, acquired a few Mission vines from General Mariano Vallejo's Sonoma vineyard and planted them outside his log cabin, 2 miles (3 kilometers) north of present-day Yountville. Little did he know that the entire Napa Valley would one day be carpeted with a lush green sea of vines. Within six years Yount himself was harvesting an annual average of 200 gallons (900 liters).
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How quickly did winemaking spread in Napa County after the initial vines were planted by George Yount?
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By the turn of the decade other vineyards had sprung up and, in 1859, Samuel Brannan, an ex-Mormon millionaire, purchased 3 square miles (8 kilometers) of valley land and planted cuttings of various European vine varieties he had collected on his travels. Within another 20 years there would be 18,000 acres (7,300 hectares) of vines in the county, more than half the amount currently cultivated and almost twice the area now covering Mendocino.
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