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. Vineyard locations rather than winery locations determine appellation.

Because in North America we are in the process of defining our growing areas, there are two classes of appellations. Political boundaries (states, provinces and counties) are still used for some, but increasingly, appellations defined by geographic boundaries based on topography, climate and soil types are receiving government approval. These geographically based appellations are known as American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) in the U.S. and Designated Viticultural Areas (DVAs) in Canada.

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Counting all classes of appellations there are 316 officially recognized wine growing regions in North America. Presently, in the U.S. there are 195 AVAs spread across 25 states, and 21 DVAs in Canada.

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In the U.S. and Canada, there are presently 341 grape varieties being grown for commercial wine production.

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There are presently 5417 commercial wineries in North America, with 2623 in California and the rest spread across the other 49 states and six Canadian provinces.

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Appellation America is your portal to buying 1782 distinctive wines directly from 208 wineries representing 79 appellations across North America.

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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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