Our vacation villa guests, our vineyards, and our wines benefit from the early morning marine layer we experience in the Ramona Valley American Vinticultural Area (AVA).
Our climate and terrior enable the growing of premium wine grapes that have resulted in 100% of our 2007-2008 vintage releases being medalist wines.
Our wines have won thirty (30) medals for our Estate, AVA, and regional wines and ports – at International, National and Regional wine competitions within the last year.
Quality wine grapes need both a warm growing day and a cool night to allow the vines to maintain optimum photosynthesis enabling vine growth and quality fruit production (balanced sugars and acids). More detail is at the very end of this post.
Located 20 miles from the Pacific coast to the west, and 20 miles from the Sonora Desert to the east – the AVA’s weather pattern gives us a desirable cooling effect for the vines in the evenings and at night, readying them for the following long warm growing day temperatures. Read more of our terroir here: http://www.winetastingsandiego.com/2009/05/why-the-ramona-ava-grows-great-wine-grapes-photos/
Please visit us at http://eaglesnestwinery.com
Pictured here is a 5:53 AM photo and a 6:10 photo. You can clearly see the onshore flow of the marine layer (look at the orientation of the clouds), you can also see a small layer of ground fog on the very bottom of the valley. Seventeen minutes later, you can clearly see the warming influence of the rising sun and the beginning dissipation of the clouds and ground fog.
Pictured at 6:28 AM and 6:50AM you can clearly see the effects of the warming morning sun.
The climate of a particular vineyard is influenced by its proximity to the ocean, any geographic features that can conduct the marine layer to the vineyard, the vineyard elevation with respect to the marine layer, and the vineyard’s aspect and orientation to the sun and prevailing winds.
Where the coastal range is unbroken, or the vineyard site is above the usual marine layer and out of the prevailing winds, a vineyard can be quite close to the coast and still be fairly warm. Conversely, a low-lying vineyard several miles from the water, but with a direct conduit to the marine layer, will be cooler overall and especially at night.
This is in part, why the geographies and climates of various AVAs produce wine of distinctively unique character. Along with the great variations in weather, there may also be different soil types and/or depths within regions, imparting further characteristic differences in the fruit and subsequently the wines produced.
It is the task of the wine maker to orchestrate all these influences into a quality wine of exceptional character.
