Photo Courtesey Edna Valley Arroyo Grande Valley Vintener's Association
	Wild mustard and vineyards stretch through the Avila Valley, just south of the city of San Luis Obispo

"Edna" might not have the same ring to it as, say, Napa. Or Alexander. Or Sonoma. But names aside, grapes grown there are turning out to be just as sweet - which is a good thing for wine lovers.

Of course, that's "sweet" as in the word kids use these days as a term of praise and awe: "Sweeeeet." The Edna Valley along California's Central Coast may not have a sexy name, but connoisseurs and collectors say it's turning out some sexy wines.

So is Edna's next-door neighbor, Paso Robles. The hot-blooded Paso Robles wine region recently aroused the ardor of no less than Wine Spectator Magazine, the monthly "Who's Who" of the wine world. Justin's cabernets are among the best in the world, according to Wine Spectator's list of the Top 100 for the year 2000. In fact, Wine Spectator put Justin's Isosceles 1997 Cabernet at No. 6 on the list - a coveted spot in the top 10.

Other area wineries are winning recognition and write-ups as well; the industry has blossomed here during the past 20 years and currently boasts 57 wineries.

Central Coast wine country has a history dating back more than 200 years.

Now, San Luis Obispo County is the fourth-largest premium grape-growing region in Coastal California, just behind Sonoma, Napa and Monterey counties but ahead of southern neighbor Santa Barbara County. Over the past 20 years, vineyard acreage in San Luis Obispo County has increased to 15,300 acres. Those vineyards now account for $58 million in annual wine grape sales.

And their grapes are the cream of the wine crop: More than 90 percent of San Luis Obispo County wineries use them to make and market bottled wines in the "super" and "ultra-premium" price ranges.

The area's wine, beauty and relatively undiscovered state make it ideal for a wine-lover's getaway or vacation. "San Luis Obispo County is like Provence...not Napa," explains Sunset Magazine. "Everything they do here is down-to-earth."

Writer Steve Heimoff of Wine Enthusiast agrees that San Luis Obispo County is "a sort of California Provence."

San Luis Obispo's two wine areas lie at opposite ends of the county, separated by a mere half-hour drive. But they couldn't be more different.

A Tale of Two Wine Regions: Mountain and Maritime.

It's geography and climate, which combine to make such different grape-growing areas next-door neighbors.

"Here, you've got a great Chardonnay area fairly close to a great Cabernet area," explains Robert La Vine, Director of Grower Relations for Robert Mondavi Wines. "Here, in the summer, it on any given day it might be 75 degrees out in the Edna Valley. But you can hop in your car and drive a half hour up the Cuesta Grade and when you get out, it's 95 degrees. That's all the difference in the world to a grape."

To the north, centered around the town of Paso Robles and stretching through rolling oak-covered hills, the vineyards of the Paso Robles appellation are planted with fruity, robust varietals. Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Zinfandel make up about 80 percent of the grapes grown there - but another 35 or so varieties flourish.

Separated from the sea some 20 miles west by the Coast Ranges, only a few pockets in small ocean-facing valleys at the west edge of the region receive any cool maritime fogs and breezes. Daytime temperatures in the summer frequently hover near 100 degrees, with nights in the 70s and 80s.

	New vineyards greet the sunrise in the rolling hills outside Paso Robles

At the southern edge of the Paso Robles wine region, the Coast Ranges meet the Santa Lucia Mountains to form a natural wall. The mountains drop some 1,500 feet to the Southern California coast and the college town of San Luis Obispo. The Edna Valley wine region lies east of town in a gently rolling valley at the foot of the Santa Lucias.

Just South of the Edna Valley, linked by Orcutt Road, is the Arroyo Grande Valley, a fertile plain east of the quaint town of Arroyo Grande. Both the Edna Valley and the Arroyo Grande Valley run east-west amid the Coastal Mountain Ranges - just like the more famous Santa Maria Valley and Santa Ynez Valley wine areas to the south.

The Edna and Arroyo Grande Valleys are largely cool year-round, touched daily by fog on summer nights. Temperatures during the long growing seasons hover in the mid-70s and drop at night into the 60s or 50s. That makes The Edna Valley-Arroyo Grande Valley wine region the ideal place for crisp white varietals, especially Chardonnay. While the Edna Valley is famous for its Chardonnays, the region is also home to more antique vines, such as Chamisal, Viognier and Roussanne.

But microclimates abound in the Edna Arroyo Grande Valleys -- especially in the winding river bottom of the Arroyo Grande Valley, where growers produce sought-after Pinot Noir, Syrah and even Zinfandel.

Northern (High)Lights

Of the two areas, so far Paso Robles has gained the most notice outside the Central Coast. It's one of the strongholds of the "Rhône Rangers" - winemakers dedicated to the notion that California is most similar to the warm, Mediterranean valleys of the Rhône region of southern France.

Chief among them is Gary Eberle, owner of Eberle Winery and vineyards, known locally as "the Grandfather of Paso Robles." Eberle established his vineyards east of Paso Robles in 1983 with the goal of making 10,000 cases of estate-bottled wines. Today that number has hit 25,000 cases. The winery is well known for its Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandels.

Another Paso Robles wine pioneer is Ken Volk, owner of Wild Horse Winery in Templeton along with his wife, Tricia. They founded their winery in 1983, and today produce 85,000 cases of wine. The Volks use their own estate-grown grapes and fruit from other vineyards to produce premium, award winning wines, many of them resurrections of old-style wines such as Malvasia Bianca and Mourvedre.

The area's biggest winemaker so far is renowned J. Lohr Winery, owned by Jerome J. Lohr. Lohr expanded south into the Paso Robles area from Monterey County in the late 1980s, and now produces 500,000 cases of wine using its Monterey and San Luis Obispo County holdings.

The Paso Robles area is also home to another 33 wineries - from mid-size to boutique size. One of those is Justin Winery. Owners Justin and Deborah Baldwin's Cabernet was the one which caught the eye of Wine Spectator, and the magazines "Top 100" list.

"It's really a great honor for Justin, and for the region," says Mondavi's La Vine.

The designation came as no surprise to Mondavi, which in early 2000 leased some 3000 acres of land on the historic Santa Margarita Ranch and planted vineyards at the southern end of the Paso Robles wine region. Mondavi's new Paso Robles vineyards will blossom with Bordeaux varietals: Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot.

"We're always searching for which appellations have 'The Right Stuff' and we have found it in Paso Robles," La Vine said. "We believe this appellation can be a contender in producing some of the greatest cabernets in the world."

The decision to move into the Central Coast's Paso Robles wine region was made after careful study - and a lot of tasting. "We are constantly tasting the competition's wines," La Vine explains. Again and again, Mondavi's crews liked what they tasted from Paso Robles. "The cabernets, the zinfandels, the syrahs, they stood out."

A Southern Experience

It was the Chardonnays that stood out to Edna Valley wine leaders Norman Goss and Jack Niven. Both began planting Chardonnay grapes off Orcutt Road in the 1970s. At about the same time, bill and Nancy Greenough bought the old Ditmas ranch in the Arroyo Grande Valley, and restored the century-old vines still alive there.

Throughout the 1980s, the Edna and Arroyo Grande Valley attracted more vintners and winemakers. The Niven Family's Edna Valley Vineyard turned into a learning center for winemakers and brought the valley recognition with its award-winning Chardonnays. The 1980s even saw the introduction of sparkling wines at German-owned Maison-Deutz, now locally owned Laetitia Winery.

Wine collector Archie McLaren is the founder of the annual KCBX Wine Classic, a week-long auction, winefest and party that now in its 18th year which. The Wine Classic and its auction of Central Coast Wines draws a crowd of thousands to San Luis Obispo every July.

McLaren is also currently the Chairman of the Edna Valley-Arroyo Grande Valley Vintners Association. He says the Edna and Arroyo Grande Valleys have a lot more in common with the Santa Maria and Santa Ynez Valleys than with Paso Robles.

"I have a really hard line drawing that border" between Edna-Arroyo and the wine regions of Santa Barbara County, just across the Santa Maria riverbed to the south.

Santa Maria, Santa Ynez, Arroyo Grande and Edna are all east-west facing valleys along the north-south coastal ranges. All have a heavy maritime influence, and a long, cool growing season, McLaren points out.

But then, there are those microclimates - from San Miguel to Santa Ynez. "For example, at the southernmost edge of the Arroyo Grande valley, you've got Saucelito Canyon, back against Lopez Lake. It gets extremely hot back in there, and the Zinfandel produced there is some of the top in the state," McLaren says.

"And then up in Paso Robles, you've got these little pockets: Windward Vineyards in Templeton, for example, makes an excellent pinot noir."

Hard to Buttonhole, Great to Taste

Having such vastly different wine regions within an hour of each other might make for a schizophrenic wine marketing campaign. But it makes San Luis Obispo County a wine fan's dream.

In San Luis Obispo County, "Here, you can go to Paso Robles and you can get your Cabs and your Zin. Then you can go to Edna valley and get your Chardonnays and your Pinots," La Vine says.

That can come in handy, laugh's Mondavi's La Vine, since "there's usually a big gap between people who like mostly Cabernets and people who like Chardonnays. They're not usually the same people. But sometimes they're married to each other, and they have to work it out."

The wide variety of winemaking among vineyards which are essentially neighbors is a strength of the region, says McLaren. And it's one California will be noticing very soon. "No place in the state," McLaren believes, "does as many things as well as San Luis Obispo County when it comes to wine."

Teresa Mariani is a freelance writer who lives on the Central Coast and loves Wild Horse Winery's Malvasia Bianca, Mondavi's Coastal Sauvignon Blanc and Eberle Winery's Zinfandel.

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