Chalone Vineyard is the sole winery in the Chalone American Viticultural Area (AVA), a federally designated area that has climatic, geologic and geographic features that distinguish it from the land surrounding it. Unique environmental elements combine to produce vividly flavored grapes and wines with pronounced varietal character, a great deal of complexity, and a pronounced ’terroir,” a French concept which describes those flavors unique to a specifcally defned locality and derived from the soil, microclimate, and other environmental phenomena. High atop the Gavilan plateau the ocean breezes sweep the remarkable terrior of the Chalone vineyard, with it’s volcanic limestone soils that give the wines distinctive flavor.