Insights

In 2025, Napa (District 4) Cabernet Sauvignon crushed for $8,644.88 a ton. District 13's crushed for $443.69 — a 19.5x gap. Both figures rest on real volume: 77,800.8 tons in Napa, 25,119.8 in District 13.

OpenCabernet Sauvignon

District 4's crush was 31.3% Cabernet Sauvignon in 2000 and 53.7% in 2025. The district's total crush stayed nearly flat, 136,962.1 tons against 144,806.9 tons; the plantings consolidated around one grape.

OpenNapa County · Cabernet Sauvignon

San Joaquin County carried 12,865 acres of Zinfandel in 2025, 37.7% of the statewide total. That is more than Napa's 1,392 acres and Sonoma's 4,541 acres combined.

OpenSan Joaquin County · Zinfandel

Statewide Pinot Noir crush grew 5.9-fold, from 53,050.1 tons ($1,822/ton) in 2000 to a peak of 313,848.2 tons ($1,851/ton) in 2018. In 2025 it stood at 190,625.6 tons ($1,843/ton). In nominal dollars, the price held essentially flat throughout.

OpenPinot Noir

CDFA published this grape as 'Mataro' through 2016 (4,614.5 tons that year) and as 'Mourvedre' starting in 2017 (4,094.5 tons). The tonnage runs continuously across the rename, and the two published series never share a year.

OpenMourvedre

CDFA and NASS's own bearing-acreage ratio drifted from 0.928 in 2007 to 0.780 in 2019: NASS's count grew 22.9% over a span CDFA's grew 3.3%. The same two sources agree closely on tonnage (median ratio 1.064) and price (median ratio 0.982) across the years both report. Nevada County's 2022 census logged 630 CDFA wine-grape acres against 240 acres of all grapes in the federal count, 2.6x over — arithmetically impossible if both are right.

OpenNevada County

In Russian River Valley, modeled Pinot Noir maturity moved 7.9 days earlier: from day 262.2 of the year in the 1980s to 254.3 in 2016–2025. The panel reached its ripening threshold in all 46 years of the record.

OpenRussian River Valley · Pinot Noir

West Sonoma Coast's 1991–2020 normal is 2,200 GDD (heat class I); Antelope Valley of the California High Desert's is 4,656 GDD (heat class V). The 2,456-GDD span between them is wider than the entire I-to-V heat class scale.

OpenWest Sonoma Coast · Antelope Valley of the California High Desert

Among AVAs with enough mapped vineyard to measure, Tehachapi Mountains has the highest mean vineyard elevation at 1,227 m; Saddle Rock-Malibu has the steepest mean slope at 18.9°. Napa's mountain AVAs rank high on both, but lead neither.

OpenTehachapi Mountains · Saddle Rock-Malibu

Among AVAs where SSURGO describes most of the mapped area, Mendocino Ridge's topsoil averages pH 5.74; Palos Verdes Peninsula's averages pH 7.75 — a 2.01-unit pH span in the same 0–25 cm layer.

OpenMendocino Ridge · Palos Verdes Peninsula

Montepulciano drew 60,145 Wikipedia views against 53 acres planted statewide; Nebbiolo 140,107 views against 142 acres; Cabernet Sauvignon 376,327 views against 88,062 acres; Chardonnay 265,227 views against 81,256 acres.

OpenMontepulciano · Nebbiolo · Cabernet Sauvignon

Napa County's 2021 harvest-window rain was 256.2 mm, the wettest in the county's 1980–2025 record — the second-wettest year had 143.3 mm. The same year posted the county's highest mean drought-severity reading (DSCI 446.3) of the 2000–2025 monitor record.

OpenNapa County