What's in a Name? AVA Overload
In a market jammed with producers desperate to stay (or become) relevant, winemakers are turning to the government in a desperate bid for desirability. Winemakers in the US and elsewhere are lining up to get the region in which they grow their grapes officially recognized. To do that, they have to prove, via extraordinarily complicated and time-consuming science-based means, that the wine they produce is utterly distinct.
The goal is to have consumers clamoring for Petaluma Pinot Noirs for their concentrated, fully-ripened elegance, just as they seek out bottles of Napa Cabernet Sauvignon for their dense, rich, fruit-forward flavors. Official wine regions become a crib sheet to knowledgeable consumers who are more likely to buy from a small producer they've never heard of from an "official" region – Bordeaux, Provence, Piedmont, Mendoza – they've come to know and love, the thinking goes.
Establishing a new wine region appears, to the uninitiated, to be analogous to a romantic, big budget wedding. In addition to the formal recognition and an external validation of the years of labor and love you've poured into this project of yours, it is generally perceived to be accompanied by an array of delightful commercial accoutrements.
It's all … so adult. But what does it entail, and is it all its cracked up to be?
The why
The benefits of making it official are straight-forward.
"The creation of new wine regions can add additional caché and significantly raise the prices for some wines," says Michael Biddick, a certified French Wine Scholar and author of 43 Wine Regions (Mascot Books, 2018). "In an increasingly crowded wine sales market this can greatly help sales and market value."
He has a point; in an increasingly convoluted market already filled to the brim with clever labels and distinctive grape varietals, a brand's distinct terroir is becoming an increasingly sought-after carrot to dangle in front of the average wine wanker's eyes.
While the number of wine brands worldwide is not tracked (most likely because the system of cooperatives in Europe and elsewhere is too challenging to accurately dissect), in the US alone there are a total of 9654 wineries, an increase of 50 percent since 2009. In Australia, there are estimated to be 2468. The European Union grows an estimated 45 percent of the world's vines on 3.2 million hectares as of 2015, the most recent estimate available, on which many thousands of wineries are bottling wine and vying for attention.
But. "On the downside, they also can have the effect of creating new restrictions in terms of grapes used, yields and vinification standards," Biddick adds. "The regions can also create micro-segmentation where it becomes too difficult to master the vast number of wine regions in the world."
In the US, he says, the commercial impact of a new wine region can be more minimal than in Europe. He argues that consumers in the US are "not dialed into the small geographic regions" as they are in Europe, and "tend to focus on the grapes and macro-level wine regions".
The how
Creating an official appellation entails many riveting tasks including, but not limited to: analyzing soil maps, measuring wind velocity, sorting climate data, drafting boundary lines.
In the United States alone, there are currently 23 petitions to establish American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) awaiting the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau's (TTB) judgment. There are already 242 approved, with California harboring the lion's share (139!) But to even get to the point of officially being recognized by the TTB, the regions had to already be "accepted as perfected in accordance with Part 9 of TTB regulations," which, according to current and former petitioners, is about as much fun as getting a root canal while disco dancing on top of your unsigned divorce decree.
The process – and the potential payoff – are similar elsewhere. In Italy, there are currently 386 DOC regions, (DOCs are analogous to AVAs and they mean Denominazione di Origine Controllata). "In Europe, the process is lengthy and difficult; it starts at a regional level, then goes to a national one and is finally approved of by a European commission," explains Giovanni Dagostino, an Italian wine and food expert and co-founder of The Italian Tour. "The costs are unreported, but at the very least, they cost thousands of man hours."
The result
We spoke with several folks involved in the creation of AVAs, and while some have been thrilled with the results of their hard work, others are less so.
People who would talk numbers said an outlay of $20,000 – $25,000 should be expected to pay for research and consultants, and petitioners should expect to wait several years for approval.
AVA: Van Duzer Corridor
Date Approved: As of January 14, bottles bearing Van Duzer Corridor AVA could be produced.
Process Began: 2011. Florent Merlier, winemaker at Van Duzer Vineyards, helped lead the application process, and he confesses that "it took quite a bit of effort, maybe five hours of manpower a month over several years, with multiple people involved." Defining and proving the specifics of what made them unique – it all comes down to the amount of wind they get, he explains – was the most difficult part. "Luckily, we were able to extract data from weather stations near our vineyards and compare them to other weather stations around the Willamette Valley. The results proved that we had a completely different weather pattern, which has an enormous impact on the grapes."
Size: 59,871 acres tucked within Oregon's Willamette Valley
Bottom Line: There are nine brands in the VDC and 18 commercial vineyards. Winemaker Eric Eide, winemaker at Aberrant Cellars, admits that it's early days, but he has high hopes for the future. "Vineyard ground will cost more to purchase, vineyard owners will charge more for their fruit and winemakers can charge more," he says. "Most importantly, because of this long-coming, overdue classification, consumers and aficionados alike will have one more reason to explore the stylistic diversification that Willamette Valley offers."
Plus: There are four additional AVAs in the TTB pipeline for the Willamette Valley: Laurelwood District in the Chehalem Mountain AVA; Mount Pisgah, Polk County, Oregon; Tualatin Hills and Lower Long Tom in Benton and Lane counties.
AVA: Mount Pisgah
Date Approved: TBD
Process Began: 2016
Size: 5500 acres, tucked within the Willamette Valley.
Bottom Line: "The most difficult part of the process was deciding on a name," says Brad Ford, winemaker at Illahe Vineyards, and one of the drivers of the application process. "After petitioning with a hyphenated name with less name evidence, we were denied. But with a simple change to a geographical area with solid name evidence, our application was officially accepted."
AVA: Petaluma Gap
Date Approved: December 7, 2017
Process: Began in 2014. "The great thing about the process was that there was no mystery," says Doug Cover, author of the petition and former member of the board of the Petaluma Gap Winegrower Alliance. His background as an environmental consultant and his degree in meteorology helped enormously, as the most important part of the application process entailed proving that the unique geography – essentially, a gap in the coastal mountains – created a wind tunnel allowing gusts of marine air to rush through at 8 mph or more. This helps delay sugar production, cause longer hang times and create smaller berries with thicker skins ultimately resulting in a balanced, age-worthy wine with concentrate flavors and distinct varietal characteristics. Cover explains that the process took "much longer than expected" because of a change in administration at the state level. "The wheels of government move slowly, and when the administration changed in 2016, our hands were tied. It was death by delay until two Congressmen got involved and persuaded them to move things along."
Size: About 200,000 acres, along the Sonoma Coast in California and in portions of Northern Marin County. There are 80 winery and wine growers with the Petaluma Gap.
Bottom Line: "It has only been a year since it was awarded, and it's extremely difficult to prove cause and effect, but I will say that more than half of our wineries got ratings of 90 and above last year," says Cheryl Quist, executive director of the Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance. "Now we just have to make the AVA in the consumer's mind as ubiquitous as the Russian River Valley."
AVA: Malibu Coast
Date Approved: August of 2013
Date Submitted: 2010
Size: 46 miles long and eight miles wide, with just 198 acres planted, it's located along California's Malibu Coast.
Bottom Line: "In the four plus years since getting approved, our visibility has increased," says Elliott Dolin, who spearheaded the application process and founded Dolin Malibu Estate Vineyard, explains. "But honestly, not as much as I hoped. The initial impact was noteworthy and it gave us more credibility, which was our goal ultimately." The recent Woolsey Fire, which destroyed 40 – 45 percent of the grapes within the AVA, has undoubtedly added to the region's challenges, but he and other Malibu winemakers are determined to push forward and replant. "We're a community, and yes we're small, but we believe that our unique terroir will eventually be recognized. We just have to keep going."
AVA: Dry Creek Valley
Date Approved: 1983
Size: 9000 vineyard acres
Bottom Line: According to Lou Preston, who helped define and apply for the AVA, and founded Preston Farm and Winery, the official designation helped wineries establish themselves when the area was a "relative unknown and considered number two to Napa," but he's not sure it would have the same impact today. "The wine industry has changed so much in the intervening years, and the number of AVAs has increased to the point where it may be meaningless as an educational, promotional, quality assurance exercise," he says. "My gut feel is that consumers are now looking more to the reputation of individual vineyards and winemakers," but adds that farm products, regardless of their official approval or lack thereof really do "reflect where they are grown," and then can't resist plugging "food and wine, carrots and carignane from Dry Creek Valley" as truly the best.
AVAs: Grand Valley and West Elks
Date Approved: 1991 and 2000, respectively.
Size: 32,000 acres and 48,000 acres respectively, both in Colorado.
Bottom Line: Unlike members of all of the other AVAs we spoke with, winemakers within the bounds of the AVAs frequently don't put the name of the AVA on their bottles. "Ironically, there's more recognition of the distinct Colorado AVAs on the national level than there is locally," says Doug Caskey, executive director of the Colorado Wine Industry Development Board. "But about half of the wineries here opt to use 'Colorado Appellation' on their label, because there's a perception that it sells better. That may change though. In 2018, Wine Enthusiast named Grand Valley as one of the top 10 wine destinations in the world, and I'm starting to see signs – after several decades – of a pride of place emerging. We all know the Willamette Valley now, but did we 35 years ago?"
That's true. But before seriously considering applying for official status, ask yourself: do I enjoy entering data into Excel spreadsheets? Can considering how the velocity of wind affects grape flavor keep me enthralled for several years on end? Do I enjoy watching paint dry?
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