The Edna Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in San Luis Obispo County, California encompassing the rural town of Edna, which is south of the county seat

San Luis Obispo San Luis Obispo (; Spanish for " St. Louis the Bishop", ; Chumash: ''tiłhini'') is a city and county seat of San Luis Obispo County, in the U.S. state of California. Located on the Central Coast of California, San Luis Obispo is roughly hal ...

and north of the small coastal town

Arroyo Grande Arroyo often refers to: * Arroyo (creek), an intermittently dry creek Arroyo may also refer to: People * Arroyo (surname) Places United States ;California * Arroyo Burro Beach, a public beach park in Santa Barbara County, California * Arroyo ...

. It is a sub-region of the larger

Central Coast AVA The Central Coast AVA is a large American Viticultural Area in the U.S. state of California that spans from Santa Barbara County in the south to the San Francisco Bay Area in the north. The boundaries of the Central Coast include portions of six ...

. The valley is roughly bounded by Lake Lopez to the south and

Islay Hill Islay Hill is a volcanic cone, and is the southernmost of the nine volcanic mountains and hills that make up the Nine Sisters, located in the San Luis Obispo County of central California. This chain of extinct, but possibly dormant volcanoes, th ...

to the north. The valley runs east to west, bounded to the west by the

Santa Lucia Mountains The Santa Lucia Mountains (sæntə luˈsiːə) or Santa Lucia Range 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 from ...

. It is surrounded by

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

mountains and characterized by black humus and

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

-rich soils. With moderate sunshine, cool maritime fog, and rich oceanic and volcanic soils, the Edna Valley appellation has California's longest growing season. The valley is kept cool by 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 contin ...

and morning fog. The extended growing season gives complex flavors to the grapes. Ripe grapes, Edna valley

The region is best known for Chardonnay, Pinot noir, and to a lesser extent, Syrah. Grapes were originally planted here by

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 Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

missionaries in the early 19th century. The region saw a revival when new vineyards were planted in the early 1970s by what is known today as Edna Valley Vineyard. Edna Valley wines are often grouped with those of the contiguous Arroyo Grande Valley AVA. The AVA was designated in 1982, with help from the founders of what today is the Edna Valley Vineyard.

References

External links

Touring the Edna Valley
at Sunset Magazine American Viticultural Areas of California Geography of San Luis Obispo County, California Valleys of San Luis Obispo County, California American Viticultural Areas American Viticultural Areas of Southern California 1982 establishments in California {{wine-region-stub