When I started reading about American Viticultural Appellations (AVAs) from the Alcohol and Tobacco and Trade Bureau, also known as the TTB, I was very confused about how they were organizing the different wine growing regions. I soon discovered that every State in the United States is a wine Appellation of Origin. I also discovered that every county of every state, is also an Appellation of Origin.
If a person were to just count the Appellations of Origin in the United States, they'd quickly come to realize there was a ridiculous number of wine growing regions that can be printed on the label of a bottle of wine from the United States. So far, the tally reads 50 states and 3,141 counties!
You are thinking, but what about the AVAs? Certainly there are more if you include places like Napa Valley or the Central Coast? Those are AVAs, which you haven't included yet right? You are correct... The American Viticultural Appellations are distinct wine growing regions. Distinct as they can be, some are not entirely distinct at all and include many other AVAs within their boundaries. Some AVAs can include up to six counties, or Appellations of Origin (AO)!
One such multi-county AVA is the North Coast AVA. This particular section of the California AO, or "State AO" as I like to call it, contains these six California wine growing Counties:
1. Lake County AO (County AO)
2. Marin County AO
3. Mendocino County AO
4. Napa County AO
5. Solano County AO
6. Sonoma County AO
Within those counties are a multitude of AVAs. For instance, inside the Napa County AO, is the Napa Valley AVA. Within the Napa Valley AVA, the madness doesn't stop. We then find the following 14 AVAs.
1. Atlas Peak AVA (American Viticultural Appellation)
2. Carneeros AVA
3. Chiles Valley AVA
4. Diamond Mountain AVA
5. Howell Mountain AVA
6. Mount Veeder AVA
7. Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley AVA
8. Oakville AVA
9. Rutherford AVA
10. Spring Mountain District AVA
11. St. Helena AVA
12. Stags Leap Wine District AVA
13. Wild Horse Valley AVA 14. Yountville AVA, which I believe is only part of Napa County AO, but not part of Napa Valley AVA. Can anyone shed some light on this one?
So where are we? We have: United States > California AO > North Coast AVA > Napa County AO > Napa Valley AVA > Atlas Peak AVA. So if we used the naming conventions of the TTB, went from an AO, to an AVA, to an AO, to an AVA, and then to another AVA to get at the most granular level of this particular wine growing region. That's a lot of letters, that really don't mean that much in my opinion.
I propose that this is too difficult for the casual wine drinker to understand, and doesn't properly represent the wine growing region a bottle of wine, or a large percentage of that bottle of wine, came from. Therefore, I propose the following naming convention instead.
Rather than both a State and a County being an "Appellation of Origin," a State should be a "State Appellation of Origin" or State AO, and a County should be a "County Appellation of Origin, or County AO. We need to also further differentiate the AVAs. Using the example above, the North Coast AVA is huge! It contains an area occupied by six counties, and honestly, I didn't have the wearwithall to count the additional AVAs within the other AVAs that are all within the North Coast AVA!
So I further propose that American Viticultural Appellations be further classified into these three types of AVA. The Super AVA (such as the North Coast, Central Coast, etc.), the AVA as we know them today (such as Napa Valley AVA or Northern Sonoma AVA), and the Sub AVA (such as Atlas Peak AVA in Napa Valley AVA, or Alexander Valley AVA in Northern Sonoma AVA).
That will make the hierarchy a little bit more readable. Using the example above, but with the modified naming conventions, we'd now have: United States > California (State AO) > North Coast (Super AVA) > Napa County (County AO) > Napa Valley (AVA) > Atlas Peak (Sub AVA).
How will this help? Well, the casual wine drinker may not know the difference between the Central Coast AVA and Arroyo Secco AVA. However, I feel this same drinker might understand a little bit better if he or she read the names as the Central Coast Super AVA and Arroyo Secco Sub AVA. Big difference, since one would have to first go from the Central Coast AVA, into Monteray County AO, into Monterey AVA, and then finally get to Arroyo Secco AVA.
I don't know exact acreage, but I'd think the differences of wine amongst all of the Central Coast AVA would be much larger than the differences of wine within just Arroyo Secco AVA. That's what the AVAs are for, aren't they? To discern amongst different wine growing regions? So be more specific, so the labels are more accurate, and the wine drinker buying these wines is that much more informed.
For more discussion of this topic, see the VinoCellar.com Wine Forum thread: AVA Question. Leave your comments there, or leave them below. I'd like to hear about your thoughts before I make this an offical naming convention on VinoCellar.