Home /
-->
What’s an AVA?
January 4, 2011 by David
Filed under Wine Words
It’s important! When I buy wine, one of the first things I look for on the label is where the grapes were grown, which, in America, is the AVA or appellation. It’s the number one influence on wine character. Heck, in most of Europe, wine is named and sold in terms of location, not variety!
It turns out that in America we use the terms appellation, district and AVA pretty much interchangably, even though they don’t mean exactly the same thing. You should know that the AVA (American Viticultural Area) can only be used by a region that has convinced the federal government that it has a distinctive combination of soil, climate and topography which, in turn, contribute to identifiable regional wine character. They also need to see a history of wine production in the region. Wines named for states don’t fall into that category – in this country, if it’s just a place, it’s an appellation.
AVAs don’t have to be smaller, in fact there are some that straddle states (!), but they usually are. For instance, the Napa Valley AVA produces about 4% of California’s wine. The sub-AVA of Yountville, where Goosecross is located produces a small fraction of the larger Napa Valley AVA. A single-vineyard wine, like our Estate Cab is about as specific as you can get, coming off of a fraction of our 9.5-acre home ranch. There are many who think the more specific the appellation, the more distinctive the wine.
Federal law requires an 85% minimum of the grapes come from the AVA in order to use it on the label.
This can get complicated, so click here for more information.
Is an AVA the same as an appellation?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Fun Fact by Nancy Hawks Miller, Goosecross: Is an AVA the same as an appellation?
Did you enjoy this? Here are more Fun Facts from Goosecross Cellars.
Napa Valley AVA
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Fun Fact by Nancy Hawks Miller, Goosecross: Napa Valley AVA
Did you enjoy this? Here are more Fun Facts from Goosecross Cellars.
Napa Valley AVA
Napa Valley is a strange and wonderful place, perhaps in equal parts. In an area about 1/8 of the size of Bordeaux, we are able to grow a great number of different grape varieties with remarkable success. For the wonderful array of Napa Valley wines we enjoy today, we owe our thanks to Mother Nature and some rather impressive mood swings on her part.
It appears we have a history of violence, geologically speaking. Over the last 10 million years, massive collisions of the earth’s crust created our mountains and valleys. Repeated volcanic eruptions spewed forth rock, lava and ash, and created some of the small knolls you see as you drive through the valley. Changing sea levels sent flood waters washing in and out of the valley like the waves of the sea, depositing layers and layers of sedimentary clay and sand of vastly different ages. These major events, in conjunction with many minor ones, worked together to create an area of unsurpassed beauty and diversity.
What it all adds up to, is that 33 different soil profiles, representing half of the soil orders that exist on the planet can be readily found in the Napa Valley1. It’s important to note that all of this exists in an area that produces about 4% of California’s wine2. Extensive soil diversity can also be found within individual sub-appellations, such as the Spring Mountain District, an area that encompasses only 8,600 acres and contains 22 different soils series. What this means, is that viticulturists shouldn’t assume that a vineyard site, even a small one, will be uniform in soil type. Our own 9.5 acre vineyard at Goosecross is divided into 10 different sections according to variety, clone3 of the variety, rootstock hybrid4 and vine spacing – the last two factors mainly due to variations in the soil.
Today, the most striking geographic features are the two mountain ranges, the Mayacamas to the west, and the Vaca range on the east side, which form our valley. It’s about 30 miles long and a few miles wide, narrowing as it goes north, and bi-sected by the Napa River. First time visitors to the valley are surprised to notice a marked difference in appearance between the Mayacamas and the Vaca ranges. The Mayacamas is heavily forested and perpetually green. The Vaca range is dry in the summer, a home for sagebrush and scrub oaks, due to lighter rainfall, generally shallower soils and from baking in the afternoon sun.
Read more
Rutherford AVA
According to Andre Tchelistcheff, the man many of us think of as the father of the post- repeal Napa Valley wine renaissance, “Cabernets need a touch of that Rutherford dust.” It’s hard to pin down the illusive, dusty character he referred to, and today’s Rutherford Dust Society says “What we now fondly refer to as “Rutherford dust” has come to reflect an enduring commitment to quality, a spirit of achievement and a deep connection to Rutherford’s soil – as opposed to any sensory component in the appellation’s wines.”
The Rutherford District attained AVA (American Viticultural Area) status in 1993 and is the proud home of many fabled Napa Valley names such as Caymus, Beaulieu, Cakebread, Rubicon, Staglin, Quintessa, Bella Oaks vineyard and Bosche vineyard. And these names tell you that this is Cabernet country.
History
The first wine we know of from Rutherford was made by the town’s namesake, Thomas Rutherford, somewhere between 1850 and 1880. He had married into the Yount family, who owned the Caymus Rancho, a remarkable land grant from General Vallejo totaling nearly 12,000 acres. It began south of Yountville and stretched all the way up to Zinfandel Lane, just south of St. Helena. As a wedding gift, Mr. Rutherford and his bride received over 1000 acres at the northern end of the Rancho in what is now known as the Rutherford AVA.
As the rest of the Caymus Rancho was gradually sold off, the Rutherford area welcomed some well-known, historic names in wine such as Gustave Niebaum (Inglenook) and Georges de Latour (Beaulieu). By the late 1880s there were over two million vines under cultivation in Rutherford as the phylloxera problem began to spread. De Latour proved to be a valuable addition to the community, in that regard, as he brought phylloxera-resistant rootstock to the valley, which were used to start his vineyard, and he also became a major supplier for other valley growers faced with devastation.
In 1900, he established his winery, Beaulieu Vineyard, on the site that is still home to B.V. and won local respect for his high standards in winemaking. B.V. was one of a handful of wineries that garnered a number of awards and also managed to survive prohibition by producing sacramental wine.
De Latour was also renowned for recognizing brilliance when he saw it – he brought the young enologist, Andre Tchelistcheff, to Napa Valley in the late 1930s to further improve wine quality. Tchelistcheff went on to consult for countless local vintners and is considered largely responsible for leading the valley’s industry through successful reconstruction following repeal of prohibition.
Read more
Oakville AVA
The Oakville AVA is home to some of the most famous names in Napa Valley – Robert Mondavi, Harlan, Rudd, Opus One and Screaming Eagle are well-known producers, there, and To Kalon and Martha’s Vineyard grow some of the most sought-after grapes in California.
History
The history of research and innovation in the region, which still thrives today, was instigated by Hamilton Crabb in 1868. The first “research station” in Oakville was Crabb’s To Kalon (Greek for “highest beauty”) vineyard, where he planted over 300 varieties. He purchased the 240-acre parcel in Oakville and, by 1877, he had over 130 acres of producing vineyard and sold cuttings to other Napa Valley growers. As the first commercial winery owner in Oakville, he was producing 50,000 gallons of To Kalon wine. Today, the University of California at Davis has a research vineyard in Oakville and Robert Mondavi Winery is renowned for its in-house research, part of it on the original To Kalon ranch. Crabb’s neighbor, Far Niente winery, began producing in 1885 and by 1887 over 1000 acres of vines were thriving in Oakville. In the long, arduous recovery from prohibition, the Napa Valley became the first AVA in America in 1981 and the Oakville District gained AVA status in 1993.
Location
Oakville is just about in the center of Napa Valley, and is about two miles wide, it’s borders clearly marked by the western Mayacamas mountains and the Vaca range to the east. From its northern boundary, where it meets with the Rutherford District, to its southern boundary, the Yountville District, is just over a mile. At about 5,000 planted acres, it represents about 11% of the total vine-acres in Napa Valley.
Soil
At first glance, the soils appear to be relatively uniform and well defined – a mix of various loams, especially clay, sand and gravelly loam. They’re mainly the result of weathered, broken down rock that washed down the two mountain ranges over the millennia to mix with the with the river and stream deposits of clay, silt and gravel. They rest on a base of gravel that promotes, generally, very good drainage and deep root penetration. A closer look reveals that the two ranges have little in common. The western Mayacamas were pushed up from the bottom of the sea as the valley floor sank, millions of years ago, bringing up a chaotic mix of ancient marine rock formations, sandstone, limestone, serpentine (California’s state rock!), shale and metamorphic rocks. The two large, famous alluvial fans at the base of the Mayacamas are composed of rock and loamy sediment that washed down during storm after storm over the millennia. The eastern Vaca range, rather than pushing up, was formed, layer by layer, by the deposit of repeated volcanic eruptions caused by fissures in the tip of the San Andreas fault as it was dragged north by the Pacific and North America plates. It left compressed volcanic ash (tuff or tufa – often exposed tufa), lava flows, volcanic mudflows, a variety of other pyroclastic deposits (fragmental pieces of rock, such as minerals or glass, spewed by the eruption), and sedimentary rocks of volcanic origin. Virtually every knob and knoll you see in Napa Valley is of the same volcanic origin. Oxidized iron accounts for the noticeably-red soils in much of east Oakville. Heavy rainfall over the Mayacamas may explain the large size of the western alluvial fans. The eastern fans are small and the soil thin by comparison.
Climate
Oakville is noticeably warmer than the neighboring Yountville District, to the south, and just a tick cooler than the Rutherford District to the north. Moving from south to north, the valley heat increases as it moves away from the marine influence of the San Pablo Bay at the southern end. Oakville residents often experience afternoon temperatures in the mid-to-upper 80 and 90s, F., in the height of summer. The heat of the day forwards the maturation of the slow-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon that dominates the district. As the heat rises, it eventually pulls in cool bay fog and breezes, and it’s common to see temperatures drop into the mid 50s at night. The fog often lingers until mid-morning the next day, preventing over-rapid sugar accumulation and retaining color and refreshing acidity. This is about as good as it gets for Cabernet Sauvignon. The west side of Oakville is exposed to heavy winter rains and is in the shadow of the Mayacamas, late in the day, in mid summer. The east side experiences lighter rainfall and receives the full impact of the afternoon sun as the day wears on.
Read more
NVWR® 63 – The Napa Valley AVA
April 1, 2008 by David
Filed under Napa Valley Wine Radio
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Did you know that Napa Valley produces just 4% of California’s wine? And yet, in such a small area, we enjoy an amazing diversity of soils and a climate that allows us to produce a number of different varieties of outstanding quality.
Sit back and enjoy a glass of Napa Valley wine while Nancy Hawks Miller, a 20-year veteran of the wine industry and our Director of Education, tells you a little about it. Cheers!
Chardonnay
June 19, 2007 by David
Filed under Winemaker Notes
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Fresh apple, pear and citrus–crisp with maybe some minerality? Or big, round, buttery and oaky? What goes on here? What is Chardonnay’s true identity? It seems to be all of the above. It’s quite a malleable variety that some say has little varietal distinction to call its own, yet it’s a beautiful showcase for terroir and also for the winemaker’s bag of tricks.
Join Nancy Hawks Miller, our Director of Education, for the first in a series of podcasts covering the major wine varietals.
NVWR® 15 – What is an AVA?
June 5, 2006 by David
Filed under Napa Valley Wine Radio
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
We hear about appellations, districts and AVA’s all the time, but the term AVA is the only one that tells you a region has been recognized by the federal government as one of distinction. Nancy Hawks Miller, our Director of Education will tell you about some of the requirements and what American Viticultural Areas mean to you as a consumer.
Text: What is an AVA?
