Mendocino Ridge AVA

The Mendocino Ridge AVA is a coastal, cool climate and high altitude American Viticultural Area located entirely within the coastal zone of Mendocino County, California. The boundaries of the AVA encompass the costal ridges adjacent to the Pacific Ocean that reach inland toward the Anderson Valley. Roughly 36 miles of the southernmost portion of the Mendocino Coast make up the western boundary of the AVA, with the Sonoma County line as the southern boundary, the Navarro River as the northern boundary and Anderson Valley as the inland boundary running northwest-southeast. The Mendocino Ridge AVA “is essentially a northern extension of the true Sonoma Coast viticultural area.” However, the Mendocino Ridge AVA designation is unique in that it is limited by elevation, reserved only for vineyards at or above 1200 feet. This is why the Mendocino Ridge AVA has been nicknamed “Islands in the Sky®,” because the vineyards sitting at 1200 feet or higher are often perched above thick fog moving inland from the Pacific Ocean blanketing the coast and the valleys between the ridge tops, making the tips of the mountains look like islands protruding from a sea of fog. In this overlapping, “[t]he Mendocino Ridge AVA floats above the Anderson Valley and Mendocino appellations.” Mendocino Ridge is the only non-contiguous AVA in the United States; all others are contiguous landmasses with all vineyards inside the boundaries designated as part of the AVA, whereas Mendocino Ridge in comparison only includes the higher altitude growing sites. “There are 262,400 acres (410 square miles, 36 miles long from north to south) within the outer boundaries of the Mendocino Ridge viticultural area, but the actual viticultural area encompasses only 87,466 acres which lie above 1,200 feet elevation. Of these 87,466 acres, approximately 1,500 to 2,000 acres (2% of the total acreage) of the ridge tops are suitable for vineyards. The side-slopes are very steep (often above 70%) and covered with timber, making them unfit for planting”. Estimates of planted acres range from 233 to 410, which accounts for about 0.3% of the total area. These planted acres are scattered among 16 remote vineyards.