fter a long three-year journey through the bureaucratic maze of the Department of Revenue and its Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TBB), the March 30, 2009 edition of the Federal Register allocated five full pages to the establishment of North Carolina’s third AVA, comprised essentially of the 868 acres of the Haw River watershed in the North Central area of the state, including parts of six counties. Included in the approval are the designations “Haw River” and Haw River Valley as options for wineries within the approved AVA; and the 85 percent rule for grape content applies.