American Viticultural Area · CA
Dry Creek Valley
Dry Creek Valley is a federally-designated American Viticultural Area in CA, established in 1983. The map below shows its official TTB boundary alongside nearby AVAs.
The Dry Creek Valley boundary is highlighted. Nearby AVAs are rendered in gray — click any of them to view that AVA's page.
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Established
1983
Size
~78,100
acres
State
CA
Climate
Mediterranean
Signature varietals
Boundary recorded in 27 CFR Part 9 · Source: TTB
About the Dry Creek Valley AVA
Dry Creek Valley, designated 1983, occupies a narrow north-south valley west of Healdsburg in northern Sonoma County. The valley is warmer than its coastal neighbors Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast — protected from the heaviest fog by an intervening ridge — but still moderated enough to produce balanced wines without the heat-stress of inland California regions.
The AVA is best known for Zinfandel, particularly the bench and hillside plantings on the valley's eastern and western sides where many vines are over 50 years old and some over a century. Gravelly bench soils suit Zinfandel especially well. Sauvignon Blanc thrives on the cooler valley floor, and Cabernet Sauvignon plantings on the upper benches and hillsides have grown steadily since the 1990s.
Nearby AVAs
Other American Viticultural Areas closest to Dry Creek Valley — useful when a vineyard sits inside more than one AVA at once.
Embed this map on your site
Free for wineries, regional associations, and wine-education sites — the interactive Dry Creek Valley boundary map above, in a single iframe.
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Wineries that list on Crush appear as pins on the embedded map too. Want a custom framing or a white-label version? Get in touch.