American Viticultural Area

The American appellation system; see under AVA.

Abbreviation for "American Viticultural Area" (also "Approved Viticultural Area"), the appellation system commonly used in the USA. It was introduced at the insistence of Californian grape growers in particular. This was because the classification system by climate zone developed in California in the 1940s had proved to be inadequate. From 1970 onwards, all US states were analysed by the then BATF (now TTB = Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau) on behalf of the US federal government with regard to their geographical characteristics. This included, for example, the suitability of certain regions for a particular grape variety. In 1978, some geographical areas were then classified for the first time, creating the conditions for an origin system based on the French Appellation d'Origine Protégée. The first systems, which were still very inconsistent, were based on political state or county borders.

USA - Karte

First AVA area Augusta/Missouri

Surprisingly, the first area classified as an AVA was not in California, but in...

Full text

Voices of our members

For my many years of work as an editor with a wine and culinary focus, I always like to inform myself about special questions at Wine lexicon. Spontaneous reading and following links often leads to exciting discoveries in the wide world of wine.
Dr. Christa Hanten
Fachjournalistin, Lektorin und Verkosterin, Wien

Welcome back!

American Viticultural Area

AVA

First AVA area Augusta/Missouri

Voices of our members

The world's largest Lexicon of wine terms.

EVENTS NEAR YOU