American Viticultural Areas
An American Viticultural Area (AVA) is an enclosed grape-growing region delineated by geographic features, with borders created by the United States government’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). This enclosing and separation of these appellations is done at the request of wineries etc so as to be given a certain priority and benefits for cultivating wine. An appellation is basically a geographic term used to define and pin point locations where the grapes for a wine were grown. The rules that govern appellations are dependent on the country in which the wine was produced. There are nearly 200 AVAs currently in the US.Before the AVA system and the installation of these specialized areas, wine appellations were selected based on state and county boundaries. All of these were cultured in and maybe appear on wine labels as the allotted and selected places of origins but these appellations are in truth separate from any of the real AVAs.
They vary in dimension from the Ohio River Valley AVA at a staggering 26,000 square miles (67,300 km²) across four states, to the considerably smaller Cole Ranch AVA in Mendocino County, California, at only 62 acres (25 hectares). The Augusta AVA in Augusta, Missouri was the first recognized AVA, gaining the status on June 20, 1980. Since then, the number has grown to 187 until April 2007.
In contrast to their European counterparts, an AVA specifies only a location. They are actually closer to the Italian Indicazione Geografica Tipica in that context. Unlike most European appellations, an AVA does not limit the type of grapes grown, the method of vinification, or the yield, to name a few. Some of those factors may, however, be used by the petitioner (requesting an AVA installation) when creating an AVA’s boundaries.
Filed under: Vineyards
