[citation needed] Local topography and regional weather patterns make the Spring Mountain District the coolest and wettest appellation within the Napa Valley.

Summer heat in the interior of California creates a low pressure area that draws cold air from the coast through this coastal gap and across the broad Santa Rosa plain.

This lower ridgeline allows the cool, moist coastal air to enter the Napa Valley spilling down over forest and the vineyards that lie on the slopes of Spring Mountain and moderating peak daily temperatures.

[citation needed] A typical summer afternoon on Spring Mountain is cool, sometimes with "waterfalls" of fog tumbling over the western ridge and down through the canyons of the district.

[citation needed] Soil depths vary, but tend to be deeper than in nearby mountain terrain and shallower than on the valley floor.

The soils are derived almost equally from Franciscan sedimentary rocks (sandstone and conglomerates) and Sonoma volcanic formations which are predominantly composed of Andesite.

[citation needed] While grapes may have been grown in the area as early as the American Civil War, the first documented planting is that of Charles Lemme, who cultivated the 25 acres (10 ha) La Perla Vineyard just south of York Creek in 1874.

Later in the decade, Fortune Chevalier, a Frenchman who had come to San Francisco during the Gold Rush, planted 25 acres (10 ha) and built a stone winery.

[citation needed] Most notable among the early growers was wealthy San Francisco banker and financier Tiburcio Parrott, who established a vineyard that he named Miravalle and built a Victorian-style home that still stands on the property.

[citation needed] Grape growing and winemaking declined in Spring Mountain from 1910 to 1940 due to the onset of phylloxera and Prohibition.

The first reawakening of viticulture came in 1946, when Fred and Eleanor McCrea planted a small vineyard north of Mill Creek, and then in 1953 founded a legendary winery called Stony Hill.

The resurgence began in earnest in the late 1960s and 1970s — with the founding of several wineries, including Ritchie Creek, Yverdon, Spring Mountain Vineyard, Smith-Madrone and Robert Keenan.