Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/437909
26 Wines&Vines January 2015 wine industry news P etaluma, Calif.—Members of the Peta- luma Gap Winegrowers Alliance are fi- nalizing their petition to create a new American Viticultural Area (AVA). With an eye toward submitting a watertight proposal that will pass the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) review process without incident, the group is running into a problem: overlap with the Russian River Valley AVA. The original map for a Petaluma Gap grow- ing area was drawn in 2005. Since that time, the Russian River Valley AVA has successfully lobbied twice to expand its boundaries. In 2011 the TTB approved an expansion led by E. & J. Gallo in spite of arguments that the new area was more aptly defined as the Petaluma Gap. (Gallo's Two Rock Vineyard is located in the contested area west of Cotati, Calif.) With this section now federally recognized as part of the Russian River Valley growing area, and the growers' alliance finally ready to submit a petition, leadership is in a difficult position. While TTB regulation does not pro- hibit the agency from approving two sub-AVAs that overlap, anecdotal evidence and guidance from inside the TTB suggest that such an ap- plication would not be approved. At this point, there are "very slim chances we'll submit a petition with an overlap," said Ana Keller, president of the Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance and director of wine- making at Keller Estate. "We're trying to make the best decision understanding that the TTB does not favor overlaps." The proposed AVA currently includes nine li- censed wineries and 80-plus vineyards. With more than 4,000 acres planted to wine grapes, it pro- duces fruit for 720,000 cases of wine per year— more than 50 of them vineyard designates. The proposed AVA would fall almost en- tirely inside the 50,000-acre Sonoma Coast AVA that extends from the Pacific Ocean in the west to San Pablo Bay in the southeast. What sets the Petaluma Gap apart is a break in the coastal ranges that follow the Pacific Coast. Funneled in by higher terrain to the north and south, sea breezes rush inland to- ward San Pablo Bay through a channel local growers have dubbed the Petaluma Gap. While grapegrowers had been tossing around the idea of a formal AVA since 2005, the Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Association finally got serious about putting together a petition when TTB started rejecting labels that mentioned the area—even on back labels. The permissions were not uniformly en- forced, however. TTB bounced one label back to Fogline Vineyards with the threat that if it submitted another mention of Petaluma Gap, the agency would "take back COLAs from the previous year." With this in mind, the Petaluma Gap Wine- growers Association is intent on presenting TTB with a flawless petition. "We're trying to do our homework to get this approved as quickly as possible," said Doug Cover, vice president of the Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance. To learn more about the group's plans for an AVA, visit petalumagap.com. — Kate Lavin Petaluma Gap Growers Draft AVA Petition potential ava overlap Eleven vineyards (seen above as green dots) are located in the overlapping (shaded) regions.