America’s first AVA

Stone Hill Winery, Missouri by Picasa 2.0 Photo Provided by Gus Clemens
Stone Hill Winery, Missouri by Picasa 2.0 Photo Provided by Gus Clemens

American Viticultural Areas attempt to tie wines to places. Ideally, vineyards in a specific AVA share similarities in soil, climate, geology, and elevation. Those various things, along with human interaction, comprise what winemakers call “terroir.” By definition, an AVA is a wine-grape-growing region that provides an official appellation designation for the mutual benefit of wineries and consume…