The 5 Best California Wine Regions That Aren’t Napa Valley or Sonoma County

After Prohibition, California was more or less a wine wasteland. Napa Valley and Sonoma County came back to prominence first and are by far California’s best-known regions. But over the years, ambitious vintners have revived other regions as sources for great wines and have planted vineyards in places no one in the past ever thought to explore.

Some of those places have become household (or at least nearly household) names for wine, like Paso Robles or Santa Barbara County. Some are much more up-and-coming, like Lake County (even if its viticultural history does go back to the 1870s) or the newly designated SLO Coast appellation (SLO: San Luis Obispo).

Here are five regions to discover, but keep in mind that there are many, many more – the state has more than 150 appellations in total, from the far north almost to the border with Mexico, and east to west from the Pacific Ocean to the Sierra Mountains.

Paso Robles

There were wineries in Paso Robles prior to Prohibition, but post-Prohibition, things here didn’t really get started until the 1960s. One of the key figures was Dr. Stanley Hoffman, whose Hoffman Mountain Ranch winery set standards for both quality and size (1,200 acres). Hoffman enlisted Napa Valley winemaking legend André Tchelistcheff as his adviser and planted Cabernet Sauvignon and other varieties (including, unusually for the time, Pinot Noir).

Today, Adelaida Winery owns most of the former Hoffman Mountain Ranch land, and its brambly, red-fruited 2022 Adelaida Michael’s Estate Vineyard Zinfandel ($45) amply shows Paso Robles’ strengths.

Santa Barbara County

Today Santa Barbara County produces world-class wines. But the first post-Prohibition commercial vineyard wasn’t planted here until the early 1960s. Even in the early 1980s, there were still only 13 wineries in the county.

An early turning point was when brothers Stephen and Bob Miller planted the Bien Nacido vineyard in 1973. Over time, its grapes have gone to many of the region’s most influential wineries, including Au Bon Climat, Tyler, Foxen, Chanin, and others. Seek out the tropical-fruited 2021 Optik Bien Nacido Vineyard Chardonnay ($40), from a winery co-owned by the Miller family, for an intro to the region’s style.

Anderson Valley 

Mendocino’s cool, misty Anderson Valley saw its first post-Prohibition winery open in 1971, when Tony and Gretchen Husch’s eponymous winery crushed its first Gewürztraminer, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay grapes. The winery is now one of 30 or so; it’s a small number, compared to Napa or Sonoma, but that contributes to the step-back-into-the-past feeling of tasting here.

Husch itself remains family-owned (albeit a different family), and its 2022 Husch Anderson Valley Pinot Noir ($28) captures the cool-climate, cherries-and-spice qualities of Anderson Pinot.

Lake County

Post-Prohibition, it took decades for Lake County, which lies northwest of Napa Valley, to resurface in the public’s wine awareness. Little-known fact: Wine giant Kendall-Jackson actually got its start here, as Chateau du Lac, in 1982; founder Jess Jackson moved the business to Sonoma in 1993.

The real growth spurt kicked off in the late 1990s, as vintners started to realize the region’s potential for Cabernet Sauvignon in particular. Among them was Clay Shannon, whose black-curranty 2021 Shannon Ridge High Elevation Collection Cabernet Sauvignon ($25), sourced from sustainably farmed vines, paints a vivid picture of Lake County Cabernet character.

SLO Coast

One of California’s most recent AVAs (American Viticultural Areas), approved in 2022, the San Luis Obispo Coast is a narrow strip, only 15 miles across at its widest point, that runs north and south of San Luis Obispo.

It’s chilly but sunny; constant breezes off the Pacific make it ideal for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and also less-familiar varieties such as Albariño and Grüner Veltliner. The thrillingly complex 2022 Aequorea Seafarer Pinot Noir ($40) is a superb example of what the appellation offers; so is the crisp 2022 Tangent Edna Valley Albariño ($17), from the Edna Valley subregion of the SLO Coast.