American Viticultural Area

An American Viticultural Area is a designated wine grape-growing region in the United States distinguishable by geographic features, with boundaries defined by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), United States Department of the Treasury.^[1]

The TTB defines AVAs at the request of wineries and other petitioners. There were 198 AVAs as of January 2010.^[2] 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 Upper Mississippi Valley AVA at 29,900 square miles (77,000 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.^[3]

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 2.2.1 Oregon 2.2.2 Washington 2.2.3 Multi-state 2.3 List of East Coast AVAs 2.3.1 New York 2.3.2 Virginia 2.3.3 Other east coast AVAs 2.4 List of AVAs in other regions 2.4.1 Texas 2.4.2 Michigan 2.4.3 Other states 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

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.^[4]

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.

Current areas

List of California AVAs

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.

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

Klamath Mountains

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

Seiad Valley

Trinity Lakes

Willow Creek

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 Calistoga 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

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

South Coast

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

Antelope Valley Cucamonga Valley Leona Valley Malibu-Newton Canyon

Ramona Valley Saddle Rock-Malibu San Pasqual Valley Sierra Pelona Valley

South Coast Temecula Valley

List of Pacific Northwest AVAs

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

Oregon See also: Oregon wine Applegate Valley, Oregon Chehalem Mountains, Oregon Dundee Hills, Oregon Eola-Amity Hills, Oregon McMinnville, Oregon Red Hill Douglas County, Oregon Ribbon Ridge, Oregon Rogue Valley, Oregon Southern Oregon, Oregon Umpqua Valley, Oregon Willamette Valley, Oregon Yamhill-Carlton District, Oregon

Washington See also: Washington wine Horse Heaven Hills, Washington Lake Chelan, Washington Puget Sound, Washington Rattlesnake Hills, Washington Red Mountain, Washington Snipes Mountain AVA, Washington Wahluke Slope, Washington Yakima Valley, Washington Multi-state Columbia Gorge, Oregon and Washington Columbia Valley, Washington and Oregon Snake River Valley, Idaho and Oregon Walla Walla Valley, Oregon and Washington

List of East Coast AVAs

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

New York See also: New York wine Cayuga Lake, New York Finger Lakes, New York Hudson River Region, New York Long Island, New York Niagara Escarpment, New York North Fork of Long Island, New York Seneca Lake, New York The Hamptons, Long Island, New York Virginia See also: Virginia wine Monticello, Virginia North Fork of Roanoke, Virginia Northern Neck George Washington Birthplace, Virginia Rocky Knob, Virginia Virginia's Eastern Shore, Virginia

Other east coast AVAs Catoctin, Maryland Central Delaware Valley, New Jersey & Pennsylvania Cumberland Valley, Maryland & Pennsylvania Haw River Valley, North Carolina Lake Erie, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania Lancaster Valley, Pennsylvania Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania Linganore, Maryland Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts Outer Coastal Plain, New Jersey Shenandoah Valley, Virginia and West Virginia Southeastern New England, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island Swan Creek, North Carolina Warren Hills, New Jersey Western Connecticut Highlands, Connecticut Yadkin Valley, North Carolina

List of AVAs in other regions

A list of American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) in the American Heartland (i.e. not on the Atlantic or Pacific coast):

Texas See also: Texas wine Bell Mountain, Texas Escondido Valley, Texas Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country, Texas Mesilla Valley, New Mexico and Texas Texas Davis Mountains, Texas Texas High Plains, Texas Texas Hill Country, Texas Texoma, Texas Michigan See also: Michigan wine Fennville, Michigan Lake Michigan Shore, Michigan Leelanau Peninsula, Michigan Old Mission Peninsula, Michigan

Other states Alexandria Lakes, Minnesota Altus, Arkansas Arkansas Mountain, Arkansas Augusta, Missouri Grand River Valley, Ohio Grand Valley, Colorado Hermann, Missouri Isle St. George, Ohio Kanawha River Valley, West Virginia Lake Wisconsin, Wisconsin Loramie Creek, Ohio 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 Ozark Highlands, Missouri Ozark Mountain, Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma Shawnee Hills, Illinois Shenandoah Valley, Virginia and West Virginia Sonoita, Arizona Upper Mississippi Valley, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin West Elks, Colorado

See also

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

References

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