Cucamonga Valley AVA
American Viticultural Area in California
Cucamonga Valley { koo-kuh-MOHN-guh) is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) straddling the border of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, California in the Cucamonga Valley region of the Pomona Valley, about 15 miles (24 km) west of San Bernardino. It was established as the nation's 126th, the state's 74th, Riverside County’s third and San Bernardino County's initial AVA on March 31, 1995, by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), Treasury after reviewing the petition submitted from Gino L. Filippi of J. Filippi Vintage Co. on behalf of himself, local grape growers and vintners to propose a viticultural area known as "Cucamonga Valley."
The AVA designation enables wineries to use the name "Cucamonga Valley" on their wine labels when utilizing at least 85% Cucamonga Valley grapes.
Cucamonga Valley has a warm climate for viniculture, with summer temperatures often exceeding 100 °F (38 °C). The valley floor is sandy, alluvial soils. Pierce's disease has affected vines in the valley. The USDA plant hardiness zones range from 9b to 10a.
History
Grape cultivation began in the Cucamonga Valley in 1838 by Tiburcio Tapia on the Rancho Cucamonga, a Mexican land grant in Alta California. In 1859 rancher John Rains began large vine plantings in Cucamonga, introducing agriculture on a large scale to replace traditional cattle and sheep raising in the region. By 1917 the Cucamonga-Guasti vineyards spanned over 20,000 acres (31 sq mi), and Secondo Guasti was advertising his vineyard as "The Largest in the World."
When Prohibition began in 1920, the Cucamonga Valley produced more wine grapes than Napa and Sonoma Counties combined.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Cucamonga Valley AVA” is american Viticultural Area in California. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Cucamonga, Valley and American, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “american Viticultural Area in California” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1142996. The Library of Congress control number is sh2017004488. Authority coordinates are 34.107, -117.610. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1995, 1838, 1859 and 1917.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Cucamonga Valley AVA”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Cucamonga Valley AVA primary sources, Cucamonga Valley AVA archive and Cucamonga research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Cucamonga Valley AVA”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Cucamonga Valley AVA” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.