Coachella Valley

A sliver of majestic land 45 miles long and 15 miles wide, the Coachella Valley in Riverside County is nestled between mountain ranges and the unique saltwater lake, the Salton Sea. This land’s legacy is an abundance of sandy soil with excellent water-holding capacity that can sprout beautiful plants time and time again. Our legacy is built upon it.

Sun World nurtures the enriched soils of two distinct microclimates within the Coachella Valley: the Mecca Slope and the Oasis region. The harvests of these two regions follow the sun from east to west, allowing us to begin growing our delicious grapes on the Mecca Slope and finish our harvests on the Oasis. Because of Coachella’s microclimates and warm year-round temperatures, you get to indulge in refreshing grapes, crisp peppers and juicy citrus throughout the year.

The lush Mecca Slope rolling off the Little San Bernardino Mountains is marked by an early growing season. Because this land faces west, we can take advantage of more sunlight and higher temperatures that allow sugars to develop in grapes for a delightfully sweeter taste. The Mecca Slope also lies several 100 feet off the Valley floor, which means cold air drains off the slope and we rarely experience spring frosts. These rich soils vary from rocky to very sandy and are farmed with drip irrigation to yield some of the region’s earliest table grapes: our signature SUPERIOR SEEDLESS® and MIDNIGHT BEAUTY® brand grapes, and Flame Seedless grapes.

Eroded from the surrounding mountains, the land in the Oasis region is extremely fertile and boasts good water-holding capacity. Because the Oasis’ microclimate offers a later growing season, we can transition our crops from the Mecca Slope to the Oasis to extend their availability. We harvest our distinct table grapes from early June through late June on this rich land, and take advantage of another microclimate on an east-facing slope to grow some of the earliest peppers and low-chill stonefruit like AMBERCREST® brand peaches in the valley from early May through June.

Southern San Joaquin Valley

Once flooded with ocean water. Once a fresh water lake. Once a swampland. The San Joaquin Valley’s geological history has manifested some of the richest soils in the world. This famed area known as “the food basket of world” yields 8% of world’s produce, feeding people from Alaska to Zimbabwe. Early settlers controlled the overflowing waters of the Kern River to transform soggy land into an agricultural mecca where our grapes, stonefruits and peppers grow amidst plentiful water and warm rays from the sun. The San Joaquin Valley is our largest growing region. We take full advantage of its hot, dry summers and cool, rainy winters to produce a harvest that runs south to north from the base of the Tehachapi Mountains to the Wasco region.

Our beautiful ranches nestled against the Tehachapis are home to some of Sun World’s best performing SUPERIOR SEEDLESS® grape vineyards.

Heavy sand loam soils with high water holding capacity keep vineyards in excellent shape, yielding luscious grapes for you to enjoy. And because the sloped land faces west and benefits from long hours of warm sunlight, we’re able to harvest SUPERIOR SEEDLESS® brand grapes, MIDNIGHT BEAUTY® brand grapes and Flame Seedless grapes throughout July. We also grow our crisp peppers, sweet mini peppers and luscious peaches, plums, apricots and nectarines in these rich soils.

Wasco’s heavier soils combined with water drawn from the Kern River yield an abundance of fruit, including grapes harvested from July (SUPERIOR SEEDLESS® brand grapes and Flames Seedless grapes) and August (MIDNIGHT BEAUTY® and SABLE SEEDLESS® brand grapes) to November (Crimson Seedless and SCARLOTTA SEEDLESS® brand grapes). The cooler climate is ideal for our unique late-season grapes, and helps create the bold red and black skins that look so mouthwatering.. We are currently developing new late season grape varieties so you can continue to enjoy luscious grapes well beyond the typical summer availability.

Our vitamin-rich sweet peppers are also harvested here in August, along with our sweet mini peppers. We get extremely high yields of these sought after peppers in Wasco due to the area’s heavier, more fertile soils. Not surprisingly stonefruit, especially late-season APPLUM® brand plums, are also a perfect match for the cooler temperatures and rich soils of Wasco.

Oxnard Plains

For thousands of years, the Santa Clara River and its tributaries have been sweeping down from the mountains on their way to the Pacific Ocean. In their wake they’ve created one of the most fertile alluvial plains in the world. An alluvial plain is characterized by flat lands rich with sediment deposits from higher regions. Oxnard has that and many other advantages. Warm days followed by cool nights in this alluvial plain bounded by majestic mountains offer the perfect temperature blend for producing our deliciously crisp LE ROUGE ROYALE® and LE JAUNE ROYALE® brand peppers in the Fall, extending our annual California supply to seven continuous months. The cool coastal climate makes for large and heavy peppers with a long planting window. Fine sandy soils hold water well and result in taller plants, too. In fact, Oxnard’s rich region is one of the most fertile areas in the world. For pepper growers like us, it’s also one of our most vital.