Dry Creek Valley AVA, established in 1983 in Sonoma County, California, has earned recognition as one of America's premier regions for Zinfandel production, where the warm, dry climate and well-draining gravelly soils create ideal conditions for this varietal to develop intense concentration and spicy complexity. The valley's unique geography, with its east-west orientation that funnels cool Pacific Ocean fog through the Russian River gap, creates significant diurnal temperature variation that preserves acidity while allowing full ripening of the thick-skinned Zinfandel grapes.