American Viticultural Area

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An American Viticultural Area is a designated wine grape-growing region in the United States distinguishable by geographic features, with boundaries defined by the United States Department of the Treasury Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). The TTB defines AVAs at the request of wineries and other petitioners. There were 187 AVAs as of April, 2007.^[1] Prior to the installation of the AVA system, wine appellations of origin in the United States were designated based on state or county boundaries. All of these appellations were grandfathered into federal law and may appear on wine labels as designated places of origin, but these appellations are distinct from AVAs.

American Viticultural Areas range in size from the Ohio River Valley AVA at 26,000 square miles (67,000 km²) across four states, to the Cole Ranch AVA in Mendocino County, California, at only 62 acres (25 ha). The Augusta AVA near the town of Augusta, Missouri was the first recognized AVA, gaining the status on June 20, 1980.^[2]

Unlike most European wine appellations of origin, an AVA specifies only a geographical location from which at least 85% of the grapes used to make a wine must have been grown. AVAs are more similar to the Italian Indicazione Geografica Tipica than other European appellation of origin systems. American Viticultural Area designations do not limit the type of grapes grown, the method of vinification, or the crop yield. Some of those factors may, however, be used by the petitioner to justify uniqueness of place when proposing a new AVA.

Contents 1 Requirements 2 Current areas 2.1 List of California AVAs 2.1.1 Central Coast and Santa Cruz Mountains 2.1.2 Central Valley 2.1.3 Klamath Mountains 2.1.4 North Coast 2.1.5 Sierra Foothills 2.1.6 South Coast 2.2 List of Pacific Northwest AVAs 2.3 List of East Coast AVAs 2.4 List of Central US AVAs 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Requirements

Current regulations impose the following additional requirements on an AVA:

• Evidence that the name of the proposed new AVA is locally or nationally known as referring to the area;
• Historical or current evidence that the boundaries are legitimate;
• Evidence that growing conditions such as climate, soil, elevation, and physical features are distinctive;

Petitioners are required to provide such information when applying for a new AVA, and are also required to use USGS maps to both describe (using terms from the map) and depict the boundaries.

Once an AVA is established, at least 85% of the grapes used to make a wine must be grown in the specified area if an AVA is referenced on its label.

State or county boundaries — such as for Oregon or Sonoma County — are not AVAs, even though they are used to identify the source of a wine. AVAs are reserved for situations where a geographically defined area has been using the name and it has come to be identified with that area.

A vineyard may be in more than one AVA. For example, the Santa Clara Valley AVA and Livermore Valley AVAs are located within the territory of the San Francisco Bay AVA, which is itself located within the Central Coast AVA.

[edit] Current areas

The following is a listing of AVAs, broken down by region:

[edit] List of California AVAs

[edit] Central Coast and Santa Cruz Mountains

All of these AVAs are included in the geographic boundaries of the Central Coast AVA with the exceptions of Ben Lomond Mountain AVA and Santa Cruz Mountains AVA, which are surrounded by, but are specifically excluded from, the larger regional AVA.

Arroyo Grande Valley Arroyo Seco Ben Lomond Mountain Carmel Valley Central Coast Chalone Cienega Valley Edna Valley Hames Valley Lime Kiln Valley Livermore Valley Monterey Mt. Harlan Pacheco Pass Paicines

Paso Robles San Antonio Valley San Benito San Bernabe San Francisco Bay San Lucas San Ysidro District Santa Clara Valley Santa Cruz Mountains Santa Lucia Highlands Santa Maria Valley Sta. Rita Hills Santa Ynez Valley York Mountain

[edit] Central Valley

Unlike other regions of California, there is no large regional AVA designation that includes the entire Central Valley wine growing region.

Alta Mesa Borden Ranch Capay Valley Clarksburg Clements Hills Cosumnes River

Diablo Grande Dunnigan Hills Jahant Lodi Madera Merritt Island

Mokelumne River River Junction Salado Creek Sloughhouse Tracy Hills

[edit] Klamath Mountains

These AVAs are located in the southern Klamath Mountains of far northwestern California.

Seiad Valley

Trinity Lakes

Willow Creek

[edit] North Coast

All of these AVAs are included within the geographic boundaries of the six-county North Coast AVA.

Alexander Valley Anderson Valley Atlas Peak Bennett Valley Benmore Valley Chalk Hill Chiles Valley Clear Lake Cole Ranch Covelo Diamond Mountain District Dos Rios Dry Creek Valley Green Valley of Russian River Valley Guenoc Valley

High Valley Howell Mountain Knights Valley Los Carneros McDowell Valley Mendocino Mendocino Ridge Mt. Veeder Napa Valley North Coast Northern Sonoma Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley Oakville Potter Valley Red Hills Lake County

Redwood Valley Rockpile Russian River Valley Rutherford Solano County Green Valley Sonoma Coast Sonoma Mountain Sonoma Valley Spring Mountain District St. Helena Stags Leap District Suisun Valley Wild Horse Valley Yorkville Highlands Yountville

[edit] Sierra Foothills

All of these AVAs are contained entirely within the geographic boundaries of the Sierra Foothills AVA.

California Shenandoah Valley El Dorado

Fair Play Fiddletown

North Yuba Sierra Foothills

[edit] South Coast

All of these AVAs are contained entirely within the geographic boundaries of the South Coast AVA.

Cucamonga Valley Leona Valley (proposed) Malibu-Newton Canyon

Ramona Valley Saddle Rock-Malibu San Pasqual Valley

South Coast Temecula Valley

[edit] List of Pacific Northwest AVAs

A list of American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) in the Pacific Northwest states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho:

Applegate Valley, Oregon Chehalem Mountains, Oregon Columbia Gorge, Oregon and Washington Columbia Valley, Washington and Oregon Dundee Hills, Oregon Eola-Amity Hills, Oregon Horse Heaven Hills, Washington McMinnville, Oregon

Puget Sound, Washington Rattlesnake Hills, Washington Red Hill Douglas County, Oregon, Oregon Red Mountain, Washington Ribbon Ridge, Oregon Rogue Valley, Oregon Snake River Valley, Idaho and Oregon Southern Oregon, Oregon

Umpqua Valley, Oregon Wahluke Slope, Washington Walla Walla Valley, Oregon and Washington Willamette Valley, Oregon Yakima Valley, Washington Yamhill-Carlton District, Oregon

[edit] List of East Coast AVAs

A list of American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) on the East Coast of the United States:

Catoctin, Maryland Cayuga Lake, New York Central Delaware Valley, New Jersey & Pennsylvania Cumberland Valley, Maryland & Pennsylvania Finger Lakes, New York Hudson River Region, New York Lake Erie , New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania Lancaster Valley, Pennsylvania Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania Linganore, Maryland

Long Island, New York Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts Monticello, Virginia Niagara Escarpment, New York North Fork of Long Island, New York North Fork of Roanoke, Virginia Northern Neck George Washington Birthplace, Virginia Outer Coastal Plain, New Jersey Rocky Knob, Virginia

Seneca Lake, New York Shenandoah Valley, Virginia and West Virginia Southeastern New England, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island The Hamptons, Long Island, New York Virginia's Eastern Shore, Virginia Warren Hills, New Jersey Western Connecticut Highlands, Connecticut Yadkin Valley, North Carolina

[edit] List of Central US AVAs

A list of the remaining American Viticultural Areas (AVAs), not on the West or East Coasts:

Alexandria Lakes, Minnesota Altus, Arkansas Arkansas Mountain, Arkansas Augusta, Missouri Bell Mountain, Texas Escondido Valley, Texas Fennville, Michigan Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country, Texas Grand River Valley, Ohio Grand Valley, Colorado Hermann, Missouri

Isle St. George, Ohio Kanawha River Valley, West Virginia Lake Michigan Shore, Michigan Lake Wisconsin, Wisconsin Leelanau Peninsula, Michigan Loramie Creek, Ohio Mesilla Valley, New Mexico and Texas Middle Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico Mimbres Valley, New Mexico Mississippi Delta, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee Ohio River Valley, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia

Old Mission Peninsula, Michigan Ozark Highlands, Missouri Ozark Mountain, Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma Shawnee Hills, Illinois Shenandoah Valley, Virginia and West Virginia Sonoita, Arizona Texas Davis Mountains, Texas Texas High Plains, Texas Texas Hill Country, Texas Texoma, Texas West Elks, Colorado

[edit] See also

• Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée
• Indicazione Geografica Tipica
• American wine

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Appellations of Origin from the TTB website
• AVAs with links to detailed descriptions, from the Code of Federal Regulations located at a Cornell website
• Listing of AVAs from a wine lover's website