Lifestyle

Can California have terroir?

Terroir: it’s a word you may have heard casually woven into wine conversations between friends, sommeliers, and dining companions. Its French origins define it as all the environmental factors that determine the quality of a crop. Any wine aficionado will tell you it’s just as much an artistic term as it is a scientific definition. There’s the certain something about a place that makes particularly delicious wine. Something that can’t be recreated just anywhere.

For us, there are the many elements that come together to make wine with a little bit of California terroir. Yes, it’s the basics of sun, soil, air, temperature and rainfall that makes up the technical elements of terroir. It’s the maritime breezes that cool the grapes in vineyard mornings. But it’s also the uniqueness of our single-vineyard selections, and a little bit of New World winemaking spirit that combines to make up of the terroir of every bottle created by Sea Bird Wines.

Napa vs. Sonoma: what’s the difference?

When you’re cruising the wine aisle to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner, are you thinking about the differences in the region between the two different bottles of Pinot Noir you have in hand? One of the greatest parts about experiencing wine is the way that two of the same varietals can taste completely different, even if there’s grown just a few miles apart.

When we’re choosing our single vineyard selections for you every year, we have the chance to get our hands on some of the most premium wine-growing selections in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. Napa fruit offers a warmer expression of wine as the heat of the Valley floor ripens the grapes in that lush fashion we all have come to love about Napa. The morning fog carried out from the sea brings cool crisp mornings, and the sun burns it all off. Our Sonoma fruit sources are closer to the coast, bringing a cooler average day as the maritime breezes blow in from the sea and allow for our favorite cool-climate varietals like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to develop a pleasing acidity and balance.

Coast Breezes & marine habitat preservation

As you work your way around the tastings rooms in Wine Country, you’ll inevitably hear the expression “diurnal shift” when talking about the growing season. In wine terms, it’s the difference in temperature variation from the highest and lowest point in the day. In “normal” terms, it’s the reason you need to dress in layers when you come to visit!

This matters for us in the vineyard because that shift in temperature from cool, foggy and breezy to warm and full of sunshine helps define the quality of our wine each year. We can’t make great wine without the swing in temperature, and that shift wouldn’t happen without the coastal influence nearby. It comes and goes every day, just as the sun and the tide rise and sets. That’s why we dedicate proceeds for each bottle of Sea Bird Wine to the preservation of marine habitats from coast-to-coast. It’s our way of saying “thanks!” for the great wine that only a healthy coastline can offer.

Every time you open a bottle of Sea Bird Wines, you can raise a toast to nature’s most unstoppable force: a wine drinker determined to have a Good Time!

Ready to experience a taste of terroir with us? Shop our current release vintages here or dig into our cellar with our Library Collection here.