Recently, the TTB received a petition to establish the Contra Costa American Viticultural Area (AVA).
Contra Costa County vineyards and wineries are contained within the larger San Francisco Bay or Central Coast viticultural areas. The Central Coast AVA was created in 1985; San Francisco Bay AVA in 1999. Should the Contra Costa American Viticultural Area be approved, changes to certain labeling rules will take effect.
The application was received for consideration on March 23, 2023. The federal agency is accepting public comments on this matter through May 30, 2023.
Interactive Map “Field Office Boundaries are marked in blue and different data layers are available in the top right ‘Layer List’. Some characteristics will become visible as the map is zoomed in.”
The petition includes a Google Earth file entitled “Contra Costa County Vineyards: Location of Vineyards in the Contra Costa Viticultural Area”. I hope to secure a copy of this map for the “Contra Costa Wine Heritage” Wine Berserkers thread.
This would actually be “Contra Costa” AVA, not “Contra Costa County”. Wines can already be labeled as Contra Costa County, as is the case with any other county. There’s already the Lamorinda AVA within the county, to the west of the proposed new AVA. Other current commercial vineyards in the county, such as Perfusion Vineyard in the hills above Richmond, look like they would not be included in the proposed AVA.
Viano is probably the most well know, it’s somewhat apart from where most of the wineries outside the region source from. It’s been in Martinez for a really really ong time and although they have sourced grapes from other places it’s all Contra Costa fruit now I think. Their Zins and Cabs are well made in a restrained and rustic style, everything is really inexpensive. Very low key tasting experience, kind of like what I imagine tasting at the older Italian Sonoma wineries in the 70’s would have been like, small tasting glasses, walnuts and lemons and vinegar for sale.
Thanks Drew, It’s a bit of an outlier episode for me but the response has been good. I talk much more in it that I usually do. Also - the episode gained almost 15 minutes today. I heard back from Michael Parker a few hours after the episode went live and he provided me with an interview and a document with some more grape history of the area. I added all that towards the end so if you start listening at about 37:30 you’ll hear the addendum.
Hey Drew, Yeah you’re welcome, thanks for keeping interest in the area alive.
I thought Michael would be good to talk to, he knows some of the older families in the area and gave an interesting perspective.
That’s the document Michael sent me, I wasn’t aware of it, do you have it? If not give me an email and I’ll send it to you.
