Sloughhouse AVA

Sloughhouse is an American Viticultural Area (AVA} located solely in Sacramento County, California and occupies the northeast portion of the larger Lodi appellation. The area lies approximately 21 miles (34 km) southeast of the city of Sacramento, 22 miles (35 km) north of the city of Lodi and includes the unincorporated community of Sloughhouse on the northern broundary. This 78,800-acre (123 sq mi) wine appellation was established on July 17, 2006, as the nation's 165th, the state's 105th and the county's sixth AVA 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 Sacramento County known as "Sloughhouse."

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. In 2004 during the comment period, LAVA formally request a name change to the original petition for the proposed Deer Creek Hills AVA. They requested this name change because the name "Deer Creek" was too commonly employed throughout many areas of the United States, both inside and outside of the wine industry. The new name proposed was "Sloughhouse" because it was widely recognized within the boundaries of the region. It is referenced in the names of many local businesses and government organizations and was the name of the area where the greatest concentration of winegrapes are grown in the proposed AVA.

Sloughhouse AVA is distinguished by its warmer temperatures, more rain, elevations reaching 590 feet (180 m) above sea level reducing the influence of fog that cools lower elevation areas in Lodi, and older soils than the other viticultural areas. Sloughhouse is considered by some to be a transitional climate and terrain between the characteristics of the wine regions of the Central Valley and the adjacent established Sierra Foothills AVA.

On the area's 7,000 acres (2,800 ha) of vineyards are grown standard varietals such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Petite Sirah, Primitivo/Zinfandel, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Tannat, Teroldego, although there are extensive plantings of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, as well as Muscat varieties. The plant hardiness zone is 9b.