Winemaking and the REAL Sonoma Coast

The approval of the West Sonoma Coast AVA puts another dagger in the heat of the travesty that is the Sonoma Coast AVA

The travesty that is the “Sonoma Coast” American Viticultural Area (AVA) is finally being dismantled.

Approved in 1987 as a 500,000 square mile AVA located within Sonoma County, the Sonoma Coast AVA is perhaps the quintessential example of taking a good idea built around the notion of terroir and turning it into nothing more than a marketing brochure made of dirt.

The American Viticultural Area is a federally granted status that designates an area as having unique wine-growing conditions. In the petitions made to the Feds for approval of an area for AVA status, the petitioners must show that the area in question is climatically and geologically distinct from areas that surround it and the name chosen to represent the area must be shown to have historic roots.