A long range of hills sloping towards Pismo Beach at the southern edge of San Luis Obispo county, Arroyo Grande was viticulturally distinguished in the 1980s only by the painstaking decision to plant 350 ha/865 acres of it for Maison Deutz, the California arm of Champagne house Deutz. It was later sold, morphing into Laetitia winery. The location is one of the coolest in California. Hundred-year-old Zinfandel vines behind lake Lopez do magnificently well for Saucelito Canyon winery, while Chardonnay and Pinot Noir do well for Talley Vineyards in lower lying portions of the AVA.
