Learn about California grape growing regions - oftentimes referred to as appellations or American Vitacultural Areas (AVA). California has 93 of the 165 AVAs established in the U.S..

When a US winery wants to tell you the geographic pedigree of its wine, it uses a tag on its label called an Appellation of Origin. This tag must meet federal and state legal requirements. A lot of people believe that the term appellation of origin is synonymous with viticultural area, but that's not the case.

Viticultural areas are to appellations like grapes are to fruit. Viticultural areas are one kind of appellation. Not all appellations are viticultural areas. An appellation of origin can be the name of a country, the name of a state or states, the name of a county or counties within a state. Viticultural areas are a hybrid appellation. In size, they range from extremely small to extremely large (larger than a few states). In terms of plantings, a viticultural area may be filled with vineyards or could be almost sparse. In terms of quality, there is no guarantee that a wine labeled with a viticultural area is any better or worse than wines that don't bear such information.

Find winery and vineyard associations by region as shown on California map. Central Coast (8) Central Valley (8) South Coast (3) North Coast (14) Shasta/Cascade (0) Deserts (0) Wine-type grapes are grown in 46 of California’s 58 counties, covering 513,000 acres in 2004. There are more than 93 American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) in California (distinct winegrape growing areas recognized by the U.S. government), a testament to the variety of microclimates in the state. Most of the AVA information comes from the Wine Institute website section on American Viticultural Areas.