We need to line up our value judgments horizontally, rather than stack them up vertically. To that end, APPELLATION AMERICA has designed a wine evaluation program that obliges the assessors to systematically evaluate the wines, individually and collectively, for place characteristics. We call it the Best-of-Appellation Evaluation Program.
An appellation is a winegrowing region with officially recognized boundaries. Appellation designations are required on wine labels to identify the origin of the grapes used in making the wine. In North America there are three classes of appellations: states/provinces and counties, as well as regions more specifically defined by actual growing conditions, known as American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) in the U.S. and Designated Viticultural Areas (DVAs) in Canada.
Counting all classes of appellations there are 307 officially recognized wine growing regions in North America. Presently, in the U.S. there are 188 AVAs spread across 25 states, and 21 DVAs in Canada.
There are presently 4672 commercial wineries in North America, with 2296 in California and the rest spread across the other 49 states and six Canadian provinces.
Internationally, there are countless wine scribes passionately writing about global wine related topics as well as more regionally focused issues. No matter where you are, there is likely someone to be covering the wine scene of your area.
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