Mokelumne River AVA

Mokelumne River is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in northern San Joaquin County, California within the southwestern portion of the vast Lodi AVA. The viticultural area's midpoint is approximately 38 miles (61 km) southeast of downtown Sacramento and 5.5 miles (9 km) east from downtown Lodi. The AVA encompasses the city of Lodi and the census-designated communities of Woodbridge, Acampo and Victor. It was established on July 17, 2006, as the nation's 163rd, the state's 103rd and the county's sixth appellation by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), Treasury after reviewing the petition submitted by Lodi American Viticultural Areas (LAVA) Steering Committee proposing a viticultural area in San Joaquin County known as "'Mokelumne River."

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 (861.7 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 (146.1 sq mi) added to Lodi AVA when it was expanded along its western and southern borders in 2002.

The AVA is named after the Mokelumne River, which drains out of the Sierra Nevada Mountains into the San Joaquin River and flows through the heart of the appellation. The wine region includes a portion of the lower Mokelumne River and its tributary, the Cosumnes River. Mokelumne River AVA encompasses 87,500 acres (137 sq mi) as Lodi's largest sub-appellation where more than 42,000 acres (16,997 ha) cultivate wine grapes. The soil is alluvial fan deposits of sand and loam. Ample rainfall and soil moisture retention allows most grape growers to farm without the use of irrigation.

Mokelumne River is the historic source of Lodi's oldest vine. The grape variety called Tokay, more properly known by its full name, Flame Tokay, which for about 100 years was the most widely planted grape in the Lodi region. Its own rooted, head-trained Zinfandel, Carignan, and Alicante Bouschet, including Lodi's oldest planting, the Bechthold Vineyard Cinsaut, planted in 1886 as "Black Malvoisie", alongside a larger proportion of recent, trellised, continuously replanted vineyards. The plant hardiness zones are 9a and 9b.