American Viticultural Area

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An American Viticultural Area (AVA) is a delimited grape-growing region distinguishable by geographic features, with boundaries defined by the United States government's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). The TTB defines these areas at the request of wineries and other petitioners. There are 173 AVAs in 30 states, with 97 of them in California. They range in size from the Ohio River Valley AVA at 26,000 square miles (67,300 km²) across four states, to the Cole Ranch AVA in Mendocino County, California, at only 62 acres (25 hectares).

Unlike most European appellations, an AVA specifies only a location. It does not limit the type of grapes grown, the method of vinification, or the yield, for example. Some of those factors may, however, be used by the petitioner when defining an AVA's boundaries.

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 Napa 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 and Livermore Valley AVAs are included in the territory of the San Francisco Bay AVA, which is located in the Central Coast AVA.

Current areas

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

List of California AVAs

A list of American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) in the state of California: of the AVAs registered and approved by the United States government's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, 97 out of the 172 are in California.

A through E

Alexander Valley Anderson Valley Arroyo Grande Valley Arroyo Seco Atlas Peak Ben Lomond Mountain Benmore Valley Bennett Valley California Shenandoah Valley Capay Valley

Carmel Valley Central Coast Chalk Hill Chalone Chiles Valley Cienega Valley Clarksburg Clear Lake Cole Ranch Covelo

Cucamonga Valley Diablo Grande Diamond Mountain District Dos Rios Dry Creek Valley Dunnigan Hills Edna Valley El Dorado Fair Play Fiddletown

G through P

Guenoc Valley Hames Valley High Valley Howell Mountain Knights Valley Lime Kiln Valley Livermore Valley Lodi Los Carneros

Madera Malibu-Newton Canyon McDowell Valley Mendocino Mendocino Ridge Merritt Island Monterey Mt. Harlan Mt. Veeder

Napa Valley North Coast North Yuba Northern Sonoma Oak Knoll District Oakville Pacheco Pass Paicines Paso Robles Potter Valley

R through S

Ramona Valley Red Hills Lake County Redwood Valley River Junction Rockpile Russian River Valley Rutherford Salado Creek San Benito San Antonio Valley San Bernabe San Francisco Bay

San Lucas San Pasqual Valley San Ysidro District Santa Clara Valley Santa Cruz Mountains Santa Lucia Highlands Santa Maria Valley Santa Ynez Valley Seiad Valley Sierra Foothills Solano County Green Valley

Sonoma Coast Sonoma County Green Valley Sonoma Mountain Sonoma Valley South Coast Spring Mountain District St. Helena Sta. Rita Hills Stags Leap District Suisun Valley

T through Y

Temecula Valley Trinity Lakes Wild Horse Valley Willow Creek York Mountain Yorkville Highlands Yountville

List of Pacific Northwest AVAs

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

Applegate Valley, Oregon Columbia Gorge, Oregon & Washington Columbia Valley, Washington & Oregon Dundee Hills, Oregon Horse Heaven Hills, Washington McMinnville, Oregon Puget Sound, Washington Rattlesnake Hills, Washington Red Hill Douglas County, Oregon Red Mountain, Washington

Ribbon Ridge, Oregon Rogue Valley, 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

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 The Hamptons, Long Island, New York Hudson River Region, New York Lake Erie, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania Lancaster 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 Rocky Knob, Virginia Seneca Lake, New York Shenandoah Valley, Virginia and West Virginia Southeastern New England, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island Virginia's Eastern Shore, Virginia Warren Hills, New Jersey Western Connecticut Highlands, Connecticut Yadkin Valley, North Carolina

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, Ohio and 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 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

See also

• Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée
• United States wine
• California wine

External links

• [Appellations of Origin] from the TTB website
• [Appellation America Wine Portal] - Information about each and every recognized [wine appellation] in the United States and Canada. Detailed descriptions and comprehensive listing of [all wineries] located therein, as well as listing of all [varietal wine grapes] grown in each region.
• [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

 

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