That Santa Barbara is in Southern California hasn't stopped it from producing fantastic "Northern" wines. Joseph Ward drinks up

Trace lines of latitude across the Atlantic from the great vineyards of Europe and you will be surprised at the corresponding locations in North America. Bordeaux, home of cabernet sauvignon and merlot, is on the forty-fifth parallel, which passes through Bangor, Maine; Minneapolis; and Salem, Oregon. Burgundy's Côte d'Or is on roughly the same parallel as Quebec City; that of Germany's Rheingau falls a little south of Calgary, Alberta. Even Chianti Classico, warmed by the Tuscan sun, would be in New York's Finger Lakes region on this side of the pond. Wine may have originated in the Mediterranean basin, but its greatest expressions come from the chilly north.

There are special circumstances—climate, soil type, sunlight—that allow wine regions to prosper. The Gulf Stream warms the west coast of France, giving Bordeaux mild winters and early springs. The Mediterranean does the same for Tuscany. The great riesling vineyards of northern Germany are on steep, slate- and rock-covered slopes, which catch and hold every precious therm of the sun's warmth. All rely on the long summer days of northern latitudes.

So what of California, whose greatest wine regions are well to the south of anything in Europe? It is a special circumstance again, and a giant one. The Pacific Ocean makes fine wine production possible in California. In Napa, the San Pablo Bay cools the southern regions of the county, making Carneros too cold for cabernet sauvignon but ideal for chardonnay and pinot noir. Continuing north from the bay for seven or eight miles, great cabernet vineyards begin around Yountville. Days are much warmer, but cool, maritime-influenced nights ensure good levels of acidity, necessary for long-lived reds.

There is no better example of the Pacific's crucial role in shaping fine wine than Santa Barbara. North of Ventura, the California coastline turns sharply west, and the Pacific Ocean forms the southern as well as the western borders of Santa Barbara County. In addition, California's coastal mountains, which run mainly north to south, are, in Santa Barbara, oriented east to west. This allows the cooling effect of the ocean to penetrate farther inland.

As a result, Santa Barbara, despite its Southern California location, boasts some of the state's finest cool-climate vineyards. It is a land of pinot noir and chardonnay rather than of cabernet sauvignon and merlot. The wine country begins about 30 miles northwest of the city of Santa Barbara, around Santa Ynez and Los Olivos, and continues west and north to Lompoc and Santa Maria. There are three important American Viticultural Areas, or AVAs, here. The Santa Maria Valley and the Santa Ynez Valley are both well established, and in 2001 the western, and coolest, part of the Santa Ynez Valley became the Santa Rita Hills AVA.

"It is certainly a distinct region," says Richard Sanford of the Santa Rita Hills AVA. Sanford is one of the pioneers of Santa Barbara wine growing. In 1971, he and botanist Michael Benedict planted the Sanford & Benedict Vineyard, which over the years has produced some of California's most profound pinot noirs. "I was convinced then that this end of the Santa Ynez Valley provided the optimum conditions for ripening pinot noir."