California is, undoubtedly, the nation’s wine capital.
Wines of all varieties are grown, produced and bottled right here in the state, and there are some wines here that beat even the ancient vineyards of the Mediterranean!
We’ve already looked at the most popular varieties of white wine in California, so let’s take a minute to look at the most popular red wine varieties grown here in the state, too. Chances are you’ll be able to find some of the best wine varieties at a local winery close to your Southern California apartments!
California’s best types of red wine varieties
Cabernet sauvignon
If Chardonnay is the king of California white wines, then the cabernet sauvignon is the king of the reds. This bold and beautiful wine is rich and high in tannins, making it a perfect pairing for savory foods like steak, mushrooms, red meats, grilled foods and more.
Cab sauv grapes require a very specific environment in which to truly thrive, though they are also hardy enough to be grown all over the state. To produce the dry, tannin-rich flavor that makes this variety so popular, the vines need to be planted in soil that is loose, porous and gravelly, giving the grapes just enough water to survive and allowing the excess to drain away. This environment is best found in the benchlands of Northern California — as in, the very base of a mountain that is typically composed of loose gravel and minerals from the slopes and peaks above.
There are over 90,000 acres of cabernet sauvignon grapes growing all across the state, but you’ll find the highest concentration (and the highest qualities, in our opinion) of grapes in Northern California. Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley and the Santa Cruz mountains are some excellent places to start!
Cabernet franc
Cabernet francs have peppery, clove-like flavors running through their wines, but with a little extra sweetness that distinguishes this variety from the popular cabernet sauvignon. The clay-dense soils that these grapes grow in allow for longer vine ripening and higher tannins, creating a dry, rich wine with a little extra sweetness.
Though a close cousin of cab sauvs, cabernet francs have just a few thousand acres of growing space across the state, mostly in Northern and Central California. Despite its lack of real estate, though, cabernet francs from California have made a name for themselves as fruity and flowery wines with a rich, spicy palette.
Malbec
Though first grown in Bordeaux, France, malbec grapes found their best success in Argentina and California, where high altitudes and dry heat allowed the grapes to grow under hot suns and cool nights.
Warm, dry weather allows grapes to produce high tannins, while cool weather creates wines with more acidity. Growing at higher elevations allows grapes to create a balance of both high tannins and rich acidity, which is why the malbecs grown in the higher elevation AVAs of the Central and Northern Coasts have become so popular. In fact, over 84% of the nation’s malbec is grown here in California, even though the wine counts for only 0.5% of the state’s red wine plantings!
Merlot
How could we talk about red wines from California without mentioning merlot?
Merlot is the fourth-largest wine variety in the state with around 44,000 acres of active vineyards — and over five thousand of them are in Napa Valley alone! This red variety has notes of dark chocolate, mocha, cherries, rosemary and bay leaves, making it a perfect pairing for both sweet and savory foods.
California varieties of merlot are known to be a little sweeter and fruitier than most, thanks to the warm, temperate weather in the North and Central Coasts where the majority of California's merlot is grown.
Petite sirah
Outside of this wine’s French homeland, California is one of the world’s leading growers of petite sirah. It’s not an exceedingly popular variety, as the lack of global representation shows, but California does it well enough to make the state one of the best places to find this unique wine.
If you’ve never had it before, petite sirah is an almost sour wine, with strong notes of raspberry, black cherry, lingonberry, licorice and earl gray. It’s best enjoyed after an hour or two in the decanter so that the tannins aren’t quite as strong, and even then the strong taste lingers on the palette for a while.
So why does California grow this seemingly unpopular wine? Well, it all goes back to the unique geology and geography of the region that allows grapes to ripen for longer in the warm, dry weather. Longer ripening times means more sugars in the grapes, and the rich soil (from ancient shallow seas) is packed with nutrients to feed the growing grapes. The results are sweeter, more fruity versions of popular wines, including this petite sirah.
Pinot noir
Though the thin-skinned pinot noir grape is known to be temperamental and delicate, pinot noir is the most popular red wine varietals in the world, with a significant portion of California’s wine-growing regions dedicated to this sweeter wine.
Thin-skinned grapes like this one prefer cool, temperate climates that are neither too hot nor too cold, making California’s North and Central Coast regions ideal for growing this fickle grape. To add a little extra sweetness and body to the wine, winemakers will often age the wine in barrels to develop a smoother and silkier finish.
A well-aged pinot-noir will have a jam-like taste, with notes of blueberry, cola, vanilla, white chocolate and even the bright punch of coriander seeds!
Syrah
This wine varietal thrives on the warmer weather around Southern California, and for good reason!
Unlike the petite sirah’s sour, sharp taste, a Syrah has a tart flavor that soon smooths out into rich, sweet flavors. It’s a rich wine, certainly, but the fruity , forest-like flavor is gentler on the palatte than its petite cousin.
Tempranillo
This Spanish red varietal is an up-and-coming wine that’s found its home in California’s hot, dry Central Valley. The soil and climate there are similar to those of the grape’s home in northern Spain, where the vine has been cultivated since around 300 B.C.!
This Spanish variety has notes of cherry and leather, and is in the same family as the vitis vinifera grape that arrived in Southern California with the Spanish Catholic missions in the mid-18th century.
If you live in our Southern California apartments and are looking to try some truly magnificent examples of the state’s best wines, head over to your local winery and ask them about these wine varieties. You’re sure to find something local that you’ll know is some of the best you could find in the world!
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Featured photo courtesy Pixabay/Oldiefan
Colleen Ford is a South African who now lives on Oahu in Hawai'i. She loves to travel, camp, spearfish and hike. She's also part of a super cool canoe club and is pretty decent at it. Colleen enjoys Star Wars and also not being cold ever.
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