Top 100 white wines of California

Discover the top 100 best white wines of California as well as the best winemakers in the region. Explore the varietals of the white wines that are popular of California and the best vintages to taste in this region.

Discovering the wine region of California

California is the largest and most important wine region in the United States. It represents the southern two-thirds (850 miles or 1,370 kilometers) of the country's west coast. (Oregon and Washington make up the rest. ) The state also spans nearly 10 degrees of latitude.

With its mountains, valleys, plains and plateaus, California's topography is as Complex as its Climate, offering winemakers a bewildering array of terroirs. California wines have only gained worldwide recognition in recent decades (especially after the 1976 Paris ruling). However, the state's wine history goes back more than 200 years. European vines were first planted in the 18th century, when settlers and missionaries moved up and down the West Coast.

Discover the grape variety: Petit Manseng

Petit Manseng is a white grape variety of Pyrenean origin. Its small berries have a hard, well-ventilated skin, which allows Petit Manseng to resist grey rot. On the other hand, this variety is very sensitive to noble rot, which concentrates the aromas and makes it possible to produce remarkable sweet wines with flavours of exotic fruits, grapefruit, honey, gingerbread, etc. Rich in alcohol and acidity, these wines are very well balanced and very fine. petit manseng also produces fruity dry white wines. It is also used in the AOC Béarn, Jurançon, Pacherenc-du-Vic-Bilh, Tursan...

Food and wine pairing with a white wine of California

white wines from the region of California go well with generally quite well with dishes of pork, rich fish (salmon, tuna etc) or vegetarian such as recipes of quiche with mixed vegetables, pasta salmon - fresh cream or light tuna-tomato quiche (without cream).

Organoleptic analysis of white wine of California

On the nose in the region of California often reveals types of flavors of grapefruit, yogurt or yeast and sometimes also flavors of gooseberry, chalk or hazelnut. In the mouth in the region of California is a powerful with a nice freshness.

News from the vineyard of California

Californian Pinot Noir pioneer Josh Jensen passes away

Josh Jensen was famed for producing elegant, silky Pinot Noirs at Calera Wine Company on the Central Coast.  Leading wine critic Robert Parker Jr once described Calera – the company that Jensen founded in 1971 – as ‘California’s Romanée-Conti.’ Jensen completed undergraduate studies at Yale, but his love of fine wine blossomed while completing an MA in social anthropology at Oxford University in the UK. He was a key member of the rowing crew at both universities, but he still found time to devel ...

Bordeaux wine sales to US see ‘spectacular recovery’

Bordeaux wine sales to the US reached a new record in 2021, jumping 67% to €349m ($390m), the Bordeaux wine council (CIVB) announced this week. A freeze on additional import tariffs and buyers’ thirst for highly-rated recent vintages helped Bordeaux to a ‘spectacular recovery’ in terms of shipments to the US, it said. Exports rose by 24% in volume last year to 247,000 hectolitres, equivalent to 33 million bottles. While reds dominate, the US has also become the biggest market for Bordeaux white ...

Andrew Jefford: ‘Rosé, for the time being, is a pretty babble’

Many wine styles can seem perplexing at first: imagine the first bottle of Barolo if you only know Barossa Shiraz, or the first bottle of Jura Savagnin if you were brought up on California Chardonnay. With time, thought and repeated tasting, though, comes understanding. You learn each wine’s syntax and lexicon, its hints and inferences. You grasp the ways in which each style communicates. Its beauty dawns, then grows. Rosé wine sales grew 23% worldwide between 2002 and 2019. Its fuel has come fr ...