Why Do Warm Days And Cool Nights Produce Powerhouse Vintages In The Sacramento Valley?!
Why Do Warm Days And Cool Nights Produce Powerhouse Vintages In The Sacramento Valley?
What exactly about these conditions are optimal for grape growing in this region?
Answers:
The heat of the day and long, dry days of summer produce fruit with adequate ripeness to produce table wines (sugar in excess of 22 deg. Brix) while the cooler nights help to preserve the acid levels in the fruit that make wine have interesting characteristics and balance. A wine with no acid would be flat and boring (think of a white peach with little to no acid vs a traditional yellow peach that has some. The white peach just tastes of sweet, while the yellow peach also has that tang that makes you know it's a peach.)
Usually though, the Sac and San Joaquin Valleys are considered too hot to make super premium wines. Sonoma and Napa, which also often hit 100 degrees, tend to still cool off at night down to 50-60 while Sacramento will stay in the high 60's, low 70's overnight on days where it hits the 100 mark.