Lake County, smallest viticultural district among california’s north coast counties and among the least understood. In this warm inland district east of Mendocino county and north of Napa County, a vigorous but short-lived 19th century industry died out with prohibition, leaving scant historic guidance to the growers who restored vineyards to the region during the 1970s. The county’s 9,000 acres/3,642 ha of vines and its small population of 30 wineries is concentrated in the Clear Lake ava.
