Occasionally our perceptions of what we know, read or hear are different than the reality. I was surprised yesterday while driving from San Jose to Sonoma County in California. The state is known worldwide for its wines. What came as a surprise is how long one can drive in California without ever seeing a single vineyard. I decided to time this lack of vineyard observation. The first vineyard was south of Santa Rosa about one hour forty minutes after we left the car rental at the San Jose airport. This leads one to think, “How much space do vineyards in a state or country actually take up?”

Even for California, I have the feeling that number is low. Today we are off to visit wineries in Mendocino County. The 343-vineyard growers account for 19,322 acres of grapes. This wine grape acreage is only 0.68% of the county’s total acreage. Other California wine regions have a larger percentage of vineyard acreage, but those numbers are not out of this world. Mendocino County claims that 28% of their wine grapes are certified as organic or biodynamic. This would put Mendocino County with more acreage of organic or biodynamic wine grapes than any other wine grape growing region in the county. I find this to be surprising.

I had a similar surprise when traveling from Florence to Sienna in Italy. I had heard on several occasions that “Italy is not a country, it’s a vineyard.” My actual observation is that it is the other way around. Although there are many vineyards in Italy, there are also many areas devoted to non-wine grape vineyards.

Cheers,

Terry