American Viticultural Areas (AVAs)

Rand McNally didn't draw these lines.

Wine regions are interesting creatures. Sometimes they follow the city and county borders. Other times, it’s literally “as the crow flies.” The important thing to understand is the reasoning behind AVAs—they are designed around the growing conditions of a particular area. The regions help wineries classify and catalog wine in different parts of the country, without having to worry about geographical borders.

Chances are probably good to great that you’ve seen most of the wine regions on wine lists. Restaurants generally include the region next to the wine because it tells the consumer where it is from (and with a little knowledge, they can somewhat predict what it will taste like, given prior experience tasting wine from that region). Oenophiles seem to gravitate toward a particular region based upon the growing conditions of the area. Soil samples, wind, terrior (pronounced tear-woir) is all a makeup of a wine region.

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 a wine label. Otherwise, it might simply say a geographical area, such as “Sonoma County” or “California” (or any other county or state) if it’s a mixture of different regions. As you begin to hone your palate on your preferences when it comes to wine, take note of the specific regions where those wines originate.

In addition to going wine tasting, we encourage you to read about the various wine regions featured on Beyond Napa Valley. As we continue to grow (no pun intended) this site, more wine regions will be added. In addition to growing your palate by tasting/spitting, we at Beyond Napa Valley encourage education and new discoveries. To learn more about a particular wine region, simply click on the name of the wine region to your right.