In another ongoing thread on a completely different subject there was mention of American Viticultural Areas and what you can put on the bottle. The following list are the approved AVAs and at the bottom are the current interstate AVAs…http://www.ttb.gov/appellation/us_by_ava.pdf . I happen to be in one of these interstate AVAs , the Southeastern New England AVA, which would allow the namesake to be used if I sourced grapes from MA and produced the wine here in CT. At the same time I could use the Appellation of Origin as Massachusetts on the bottle…http://www.ttb.gov/appellation/us_by_state.pdf . I just want to clarify this up because on the other post there was a mention of the Appellation of Origin name as the AVA name on a bottle with grapes sourced in Oregon and produced in California with the source state being the AVA…Gary
Yes, an AVA is only one type of appellation of origin allowed on a wine label. Country, multi-state (no more than 3 and must be contiguous), state, multi-county (same qualification as multi-state) and county are the other types (or their foreign equivalent) that are allowed, federally.
One important difference between American AVAs and Euro AOC, DOC, DO or others is that the ones in Europe almost always proscribe WHICH grapes you can grow and often dictate maximum yields, minimum aging and even what type of closure you can or cannot use.
Yes, but for U.S. Federal labeling regulations they are equivalent…
Yes. One of the reasons why we have a strong contingent of foreign born vineyard managers/winemakers/owners. Less imposed rules provides a freedom to experiment and push the limits…Gary