Earlier this year, the Wine Institute reported that the 2008 wine harvest was light for the third year in a row and quality was excellent. The 2008 harvest was slightly in excess of 3 million tons and was only about 1% less that the 2007 harvest. Below normal rainfall, and extended April frost that reduced quantity in many regions of the State was followed by ideally mild summer and fall temperatures with no precipitation. Berry size was small throughout California, and combined with the lighter yields resulted in excellent quality fruit.

The volume growth of California shipments slowed, but still grew two percent last year to an estimated 196.3 million cases, according to preliminary numbers presented by wine industry consultant Jon Fredrikson of Gomberg-Fredrikson & Associates at the United Wine and Grape Symposium last month.

U.S. wine exports, 90 percent from California, passed the $1 billion milestone for the first time with $1,008,259,000 in winery export revenues in 2008, up 6 percent from the previous year. Volume shipments in 2008 increased 8 percent, compared to the previous year, to nearly 130 million gallons or 55 million cases. “Wine exports have increased steadily during the pat 15 years, increasing more than five-fold form $196 million in 1994.” Reported Robert (Bobby) Koch, President and CEO of the Wine Institute. Go to: http://www.wineinstitute.org for more details and opinions regarding the 2008 harvest.

Very importantly, today there are more than 150 new wineries/wine producers listed and scattered throughout every area of the State, many of which are not listed, with direct links to their websites, anywhere else. Each winery is listed in both the Alphabetical, Regional and in the Newly Listed Wineries section on the Home Page. Check your individual Regional area of the Mall regularly to find the newly listed ones near you.

Keep in mind two areas that are great for wine tasting. The Sierra Foothills, which is East of Sacramento and in the South part of the State, just North of San Diego, the Temecula area. These two areas make a nice change from the Napa and Sonoma areas and they have some very nice properties and excellent wines of all types. Enjoy.

I have just done a complete revision of the "Links We Like" section. You are missing one of the best features on the Mall if you have not visitied it recently. There are over 300 interesting and useful linked websites in 16 different categories. Virtually everyone can find one or more that they can use, and there are a lot listed that you won't find anywhere else. It continues to be a non-commercial links section with no affiliate type websites.

Did you know that California produces over 90% of all of the wine consumed in the United States annually? And that the 35 largest wineries produce over 85% of all of the wine produced in the State each year. The remaining percentage is produced by more than 2,200 smaller producers, most of whom make 2,000 cases, or less, each year.

On June 28th, 2002, USA TODAY honored us by listing us in their full section devoted to U.S. wineries in the 50 states as the recommended directory to contact for locating California Wineries with websites.

To navigate the Mall, simply click on the blocks on the left or use the links at the bottom of each page to reach the sections that you want. If you are looking for a particular Varietal, I also have links to most of the prominent ones with direct links to the producers.

Notice our footer links on the bottom of each winery's page. Clicking on this footer link brings you directly back to the last section that you were on, at the Mall.   

Make sure to visit us regularly as new wineries and new listings are being added almost daily.

Bill Clark, Owner / Developer
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How To Become Listed on the Mall
California Wineries Mall is a private, commercial website. Listing on the Mall is by invitation only. For full details, phone Bill Clark at  800-711-1645 or contact us by Email at: admin@cawinemall.com. When Emailing us, please include your contact information: name, location, phone, URL, Email address etc.                                                                                Thank you.