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Administrative area · United States

Mendocino County

California’s northernmost significant wine county, with an unusually high proportion of organic vineyard.

maritimemoderate
What to expect in the glass

Cool-climate Pinot Noir and aromatic whites from near the coast; warm, brambly Zinfandel from inland.

About Mendocino County

Mendocino lies north of Sonoma and divides sharply between the cool, fog-influenced Anderson Valley near the coast and the much warmer inland valleys around Ukiah.

It has the highest share of certified organic vineyard of any Californian county, a position established in the 1980s well before organic viticulture was commercially fashionable.

The inland areas grow old-vine Zinfandel and Carignan; the coastal ones Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and aromatic whites.

Mendocino County is a administrative area, not an appellation

No authority delimits this name or attaches rules to it. A political unit — an Italian region, an English county, a US county — used as a wine area because that is how the industry and its readers talk about it, not because a wine authority delimited it. That does not make it less real or less useful — it means nothing legal follows from it, and you will not generally find it on a label as a controlled designation.

Grapes

Wines from here

red

California Pinot Noir

Riper and fuller than Burgundy, with dark cherry, cola and baking spice — but retaining real acidity in the coolest sites.

red

Zinfandel

California’s brambly, high-alcohol red, at its best from field-blend vineyards over a century old.

Places within it

  • Anderson Valley — A narrow, fog-filled valley running towards the Pacific — cold, remote, and one of California’s best sites for Pinot Noir and sparkling wine.

What to eat, and how to serve it

Derived from this region’s signature styles. Each is listed separately, because a region does not have one serving temperature.

California Pinot Noir

Serve at 14–16°C (cellar cool).

Try with fillet steak, grilled chicken or turkey.

Zinfandel

Serve at 15–17°C (cellar cool).

Try with smoked brisket, burger or a summer barbecue.

Where to go next

Places worth trying if you like this one — neighbours, rivals, and the obvious step across.

  • Anderson Valley — A narrow, fog-filled valley running towards the Pacific — cold, remote, and one of California’s best sites for Pinot Noir and sparkling wine.
  • Sonoma Coast — A very large and much-criticised AVA reaching from the Pacific inland, within which the genuinely coastal vineyards are a small and distinct part.

Sources

Sources consulted