An American Viticultural Area, sometimes called an appellation, is defined as: a delimited grape-growing region that is distinguishable by geographic features with boundaries that are approved, defined, and published in the Federal Register by the U.S. Department of the Treasury Alcohol and Tobacco Tax, and Trade Bureau. Bernard Kipp is district director for the bureau’s nine-state Pacific Northwest region, which includes Washington and Oregon, but not California. He noted that the average number of AVA petitions submitted each year is around 13. However, a major subdividing of AVAs is taking place in California, which increased the number of submitted petitions […]