The difference of daytime heat to nighttime coolness is significant and consistent throughout the ripening season. Every wine region worth it’s claim to fame has this factor. Without it, it is almost impossible to get proper acidity into the wine without additives. Ramona is blessed with a terrific diurnal shift with our June-gloom marine layer giving way to desert heat almost every day during the summer. We’ve yet to see a Ramona harvest where ‘lack of acid’ has been a problem.

Looking at the great wine regions; some claim limestone; some claim volcanic; some claim shale; some claim granite. There has been a lot of recent research questioning the age-old belief that the soil “gets into the wine and gives it specific character”. Pinot seems to like limestone but some of the favorites don’t grow on limestone, many of them do. What you can see when you examine the regions: the soil is poor, the rocks are mineral rich and gravel is the predominant growing medium. Ramona is blessed with this wonderful, geologically new, decomposed granite that has just (practically yesterday) risen from the depths of the earth. We’ve got minerals and gravel in spades.

The climactic conditions vary the most from region to region. If any one thing determines which varieties will thrive in a region, it is the climate. From Winkler Index 1 (Rhine River, Oregon Coast) to Winkler Index 5 (Lodi, San Joachim, Sicily) the number of heat-hours influences what varieties thrive and what kind of yield targets are plausible. Ramona is blessed with several micro-climates, all of which mirror parts of the Southern Mediterranean sections of Europe. We have seen many varietals thrive here. We are seeing wineries specializing in Bordeaux, Rhone, Italian and Spanish varietals that have produced wonderful wines.

Almost all of the great wine region of the world have significant altitude for their best sectors. (Bordeaux is clearly the exception.) Altitude allows air movement. Altitude enhances diurnal shift. Altitude usually means decomposing young mountains. Altitude provides sunshine which is more intense. Ramona is one of the highest altitude wine regions in the world. Five hundred meters above sea level is generally considered a limit. We extend quite a bit above that. Ramona’s altitude makes the “Valley of the Sun” more than just a Chamber of Commerce slogan. I think this is a big advantage for us.

The exposure to sunshine on a consistent basis allows the grapes to ripen regularly and surely. The difference between Chianti and Montalcino; between Burgundy and Beaujolais; between Cotes du Rhone and Languedoc is the sunshine available. The place where the grapes ripen consistently makes the best wine, year after year. Ramona has all the factors listed above: which put it in a climate class with Southern France, Spain or Tuscany; yet Ramona has the sunshine of Tunisia – seven hundred miles south of those regions. Again, it is hard to remember a harvest in Ramona where the grapes did not reach the sugar level targeted by the winemaker, with acids intact. When grapes reach 24.5 brix in Tuscany, that is considered a 5 star vintage and Reserve wines are expected. We achieve 24.5 brix on a regular basis.

If everything else is perfect for a wine region they are at the mercy of the water delivery system. Water has to arrive in sufficient quantities to maintain vine growth, yet NEVER arrive when the fruit can be damaged. Mid-season sustained rain can be as disastrous as a drought for fine wine grapes. Very often a vintage can move from 5 star to nothing in a blink of a storm cloud. In Ramona we have the occasional summer thunderstorm (every couple of years) but rarely do we have an early winter storm that impacts the harvest schedule. And, in California, we are allowed to use irrigation systems (very efficient drip irrigation) whenever needed. Grapes require very little water, applied judiciously, so we can get it delivered when needed, on our schedule.