The complex world of viticultural areas is rife with wine-geek trivia

Trivia is one of the fun games that wine geeks like to play with each other. For many years, I had a great time when wine visitors would come to town, and I would ask them if they knew what the United States’ first American Viticultural Area was. For many years, very few knew the answer, but as time went by, more knew the answer than didn’t. For those who aren’t familiar with the term, an AVA is “a delimited grape-growing region distinguishable by geographic features,” according to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (formerly known as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms), which approves AVAs. On Aug. 23, 1978, the Department of the Treasury established this regulation. This was intended to reflect similar programs such as France’s Appellation d’Origine Contrôllée, Italy’s Denominazione di Origine Controllata and Germany’s Qualitätswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete. As soon as the rules for the new AVA system were established, Lucian Dressel, then owner of Mount Pleasant Winery, sat down with Clayton Byers, founder of Montelle Winery, and, with the valuable assistance of Howard Nason, completed the mounds of forms and paperwork necessary to apply for AVA status. Nason was truly one of the great figures in the history of wine in the St. Louis area as founder of the St. Louis chapter of the Commanderie de Bordeaux. (On a personal note, he was also an amazing mentor to me.) After hearings held by the ATF folks at the American Legion hall in Augusta (an historic event that I was very privileged to have been able to attend), Augusta was granted the nation’s first AVA status on June 20, 1980, followed eight months later by the recognition of the second AVA, Napa Valley in California. Augusta is the smallest of Missouri’s four AVAs, at about 15 square miles. The others are: • Ozark Mountain, granted on Aug. 1, 1986: This is the largest of our four AVAs, encompassing nearly everything south of Jefferson City between Kansas and the Mississippi River. It also includes portions of Arkansas and Oklahoma and is one of only 12 that have multi-state boundaries. It is so large (sixth biggest overall) that the distinction of it is essentially meaningless. • Hermann, granted on Feb. 27, 1987: This is Missouri’s second-smallest AVA. It is about 16 miles long and covers more than 50,000 acres surrounding the town of Hermann. The rich German history, the distinctive soils and the location of Stone Hill Winery, one of the largest wineries in the world prior to Prohibition, made this area an obvious AVA choice. • Ozark Highlands, granted on Sept. 30, 1987: Included in this AVA is much of the high plateau around Rolla and St. James. Part of the history of this region is the great tradition of Italian families in the area, particularly around the town of Rosati. The Concord grape was king here for many years, including the famous grape stands along old Route 66, now Interstate 44. Although it takes a great deal of commitment to obtain AVA designation, it really only determines that the area is distinguished, but in no way is it a guarantee of quality. One part of the system that has slightly helped the consumer is this: For a wine to be labeled “estate bottled,” it must be produced in an AVA. This designation means that the grapes were grown on the same property as the winery and that the wine was produced and bottled on that same property. For an AVA to be on a wine label, a minimum of 85 percent of the wine must have been made from vineyards in the AVA. In Europe, a viticultural area must be well-established and highly regarded, and labeling is important to defining regional identity. The French still can’t understand why some wineries in the United States continue to use French place names such as Burgundy, Chablis and Champagne on their labels. A very recent trade agreement would restrict future use of such so-called semi-generic names but would not impact any winery currently using them. Are there any new AVAs in our region’s future? The five wineries located in the Ste. Genevieve area could certainly qualify as the fifth AVA in Missouri. To date, Illinois does not have any AVAs, although there are likewise areas there that could probably qualify. Now that more local wine drinkers are familiar with AVAs – and know that Augusta was the first – I’ll have to use other trivia. Some possibilities: California produces 90 percent of the wine in the United States and includes more than 100 of the 162 AVAs (as of January 2006). The largest AVA is the Ohio River Valley, the only one that includes land in four states – Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia – with more than 26,000 square miles. Like the Ozark Mountain AVA, it is nearly meaningless because of its enormity. The smallest is Cole Ranch, located in California’s Mendocino County, and it is around 150 acres, of which 62 are currently planted to vineyards.