Clements Hills AVA

Clements Hills is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in northern San Joaquin County, California within the southeastern portion of the vast Lodi appellation. Clements Hills, centered around the town of Clements, lies approximately 41 miles (66 km) southeast of Sacramento and 13 miles (21 km) east of the city of Lodi. It was established on July 17, 2006, as the nation's 159th, the state's 100th and the county's fourth appellation by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), Treasury after reviewing the petition submitted by the Lodi American Viticultural Areas (LAVA) Steering Committee proposing a viticultural area in San Joaquin County known as "Clements Hills."

The LAVA Steering Committee actually petitioned TTB in 2003 for seven new viticultural areas within the boundaries of the existing Lodi viticultural area in southern Sacramento and northern San Joaquin Counties. The seven LAVA Steering Committee petitions proposed the creation of the Alta Mesa, Borden Ranch, Clements Hills, Cosumnes River, Jahant, Mokelumne River, and Sloughhouse viticultural areas. The sixteen wine industry members that comprise the committee stated that their proposal subdivides the existing Lodi area into "seven smaller viticultural areas of distinction." The establishment of the seven viticultural areas did not in any way affect the 551,500-acre (862 sq mi) Lodi AVA which continues as a single American viticultural area within its current boundary. However, the TTB ruled that the seven proposed areas fall entirely within the 1986 original 458,000-acre (716 sq mi) boundaries and thus, as proposed, would not include any of the 93,500 acres (146 sq mi) added to Lodi AVA when it was expanded along its western and southern borders in 2002.

Clements Hills viticultural area encompasses 85,400 acres (133 sq mi) with approximately 21,700 acres (8,782 ha) under vine. Clements Hills is a hilly transitional region between the low, flat San Joaquin Valley floor to the west and the progressively higher Sierra Foothills to the east. The area's high elevation river terraces and rounded hilltops distinguish it from surrounding grape-growing regions. The Mokelumne River flows through the viticultural area composed of rolling hills with elevations between 90 and 400 feet (27–122 m). A variety of microclimates are within the hills of the region. The soils are composed of loams, clay loams, and clays with an alluvial top soil lying upon a bedrock base of granite and volcanic soils. The warm climate and poor-quality soils are well suited to the production of wines made from Spanish grape varieties such as Tempranillo, Grenache and Albariño. While these Spanish varieties thrive, there are also plantings of Zinfandel, Syrah and Viognier. The plant hardiness zone is 9b.