a wordAVA
also: American Viticultural Area
American Viticultural Area: a boundary drawn around ground with a name, established by federal rule in 27 CFR part 9. It says where the grapes grew and nothing at all about how good they were.
Root. English initialism; the regulation calls it a 'viticultural area' Cited · ecfr-27-9
How it is done Cited
Anybody may petition. The petition has to show the name is in use, the boundary is justified and the growing conditions are distinguishable. There is no yield cap, no variety list and no quality tier — which is the whole difference from an AOC.
Facts
| kind | appellation |
|---|---|
| region | California, Oregon |
| confidence | high · updated 2026-09-16 |
Its kin
regionSanta Maria ValleyEstablished 1981: the country's third.organizationTTBThe bureau that rules on the petitions.and of this page it says: The instrument it administers.regionBurgundyWhere the same idea comes with rules about what you may plant and how much you may pick.
Who points back
organization · says of this pageINAOThe American equivalent, which regulates far less.story · says of this pageWhere this comes fromThe regulation behind every American boundary here.
Sources
Where it came from: Cited a source we name · Harvested pulled from an open dataset · Tradition what the tradition says, hedged · Inference this project's reasoning · Field somebody stood there. This record as JSON.