Lake County an undiscovered venue with great wine!

Often when people think of Northern California wine they think of wine from Napa or Sonoma county but if you travel a bit further north up Highway 101 to Lake County you can find some beautiful wineries with delicious wines.  In addition Lake County boasts some wonderful and quaint towns with beautiful views of Clearlake and the lush surrounding Lake County countryside.

Many towns in Lake County go back to the late 1800’s.  In fact, the land in Lake County started being inhabited in 1861 and gradually winemaking developed into a booming business.  Unfortunately, the prohibition of the 1920’s caused most vineyards to be ripped out and replaced with other crops.  To this day, Lake County has lots of pears, figs, strawberries and other fruit and vegetable orchards.

In the 1960’s vineyards were  replanted starting with 100 acres and today there are over 8,000 acres of vineyards.  The rocky red volcanic soil around Mt. Konocti combined with warm days and cool evenings and the altitudes of Lake County all contibute to the unique taste of Lake County wines.  Part of the North Coast AVA, there are  5 sub-regions and unique appelations in Lake County;  Benemore Valley, Guenoc Valley, Clear Lake, High Valley and Red Hills Lake County.

On the weekend of July 30-31 the Lake County Winery Association is putting on its annual Lake County Wine Adventure weekend.  This weekend is a chance to visit Lake County and its wineries and enjoy Clearlake the largest clearwater lake in California.  For information on the event and tickets go to http://www.lakecountywineries.org/.  There also is a dinner Saturday July 30 th put on by the Lake County Farm Bureau called For the Love of the Land.  http://fortheloveoftheland.eventbrite.com/.

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