Winegrowing region split between Napa, Yolo counties officially recognized

The designation of the new Winters Highlands American Viticultural Area caps a 15-year effort led by vintner Corinne Martinez to recognize a region of 7,296 acres that straddles Napa and Yolo counties.

Located on the inner slopes of the mountains that form the border of Yolo and Napa counties, Winters Highlands is the fifth AVA in Yolo County. The others are Clarksburg, Capay Valley, Dunnigan Hills and Merritt Island.

As of August, when the new AVA was officially approved by the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau — the government agency that reviews and approves AVA petitions nationwide — California had 149 of the 269 AVAs in the United States.

Martinez is president and COO of Berryessa Gap Vineyards, which she founded with her brother, Dan Martinez Jr., in 2002. They were building on the legacy of their father, Dan Martinez Sr., a farmer who established a successful orchard business in Winters. He also partnered with winemaker and wine historian Ernest Peninou in 1969 to create a grapevine rootstock nursery that would become renowned in Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley vineyards.

Martinez said her father’s work “became the roots” of their winery.

“The designation of the Winters Highlands AVA confirms that there is a unique microclimate conducive to growing certain grape varieties including petite sirah, syrah, tempranillo and albariño,” Martinez said.

The elevations of 100-400 feet above sea level, the soil — drained gravelly loam layered over dark red clay — “combined with the cool, lingering coastal influence and ample sunlight, create the ideal conditions for producing wines of exceptional depth and character,” she said.

At the heart of the new AVA is the town of Winters, founded in 1875.

With a population of 7,000, Winters retains its historic downtown Main Street and is home to restaurants that derive inspiration — and products — from the area’s agricultural bounty. Among these are Putah Creek Cafe, The Preserve, Buckhorn Steakhouse and the new L’Apero les Trois, which serves French-style aperitif wines made from Berryessa Gap wines and Yolo County produce, such as Meyer lemons, quince, walnuts and figs. It’s the joint project of Martinez, Berryessa Gap winemaker Nicole Salengo, and Winters’ most famous Francophile, food journalist Georgeanne Brennan.

Winters is also just down the road from UC Davis, home to one of the most prestigious viticulture and enology departments in the country.

Martinez said that after deciding in 2008 that Winters Highlands merited an AVA, “it took until 2020 to get a petition written that was acceptable” to the Tax and Trade Bureau.

“The process of the writing the petition involves researching temperatures, soil types, terrain, type of grapes grown, how many acres are planted, and differentiating those characteristics from surrounding areas,” she said.

These data determine the boundaries of a map that is submitted with the petition. It required “a lot of back and forth with TTB about the boundaries as they wanted to make sure all of the elements — temperature, soil types — were applicable within the boundaries.”

“Getting from the initial draft to the final accepted petition was lengthy, and most of the delays were internal on our part as other priorities got in the way,” she said. “But we also had three different people assigned to our petition from TTB, and that involved a bit of restarting with a new person and sometimes their input varied from previous feedback.

“What enabled us to get our petition to its perfected state was what I call a ‘COVID-19 silver lining,’” Martinez said.

The petition had been sitting idle for about a year because the person who had done extensive research on the soils section of the application had left to get a Ph.D., she explained.

“Then, in 2020, COVID rules required us to close our tasting rooms for what we thought was a few weeks but turned out to be several months. I didn’t want to have to lay people off, so I started to think about special projects I could assign to the tasting room team members based on their other skills and background.”

One of Berryessa Gap’s part-time tasting room employees was Woody Fridae, a retired teacher, former mayor of Winters and member of the Winters History Project. He took on the job of getting the AVA petition “across the finish line to what TTB called ‘a perfected state,’” Martinez said.

“It took him until November of 2020 to get there, and after a little nudging from Congressmen Mike Thompson and John Garamendi, two years later in November of 2022, TTB published the rule for a 60-day comment period,” Martinez said.

That period ended in January, and with no comments to address, the Department of Treasury completed a final review that was posted at the end of August.

Was the effort worth it?

Yes, said Martinez. Having an AVA will allow grape growers from the region to identify their grapes on labels, she said.

“It’s important to me because our area is unique and we want wine enthusiasts to know that this is an area worth exploring,” she said. “We want people to know that the Winters Highlands AVA has something extraordinary to offer.”