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.

[>] click here to learn more about appellations.

Counting all classes of appellations there are 324 officially recognized wine growing regions in North America. Presently, in the U.S. there are 202 AVAs spread across 26 states, and 21 DVAs in Canada.

[>] click here to see the complete appellation index and learn where each appellation is located.

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

[>] click here to see the complete grape variety index and learn what regions are growing what.

There are presently 5529 commercial wineries in North America, with 2700 in California and the rest spread across the other 49 states and six Canadian provinces.

[>] click here to see the complete winery index and find our where they are and what they are producing.

Appellation America is your portal to buying 1723 distinctive wines directly from 190 wineries representing 76 appellations across North America.

[>] click here to browse wines.

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.

[>] click here to find a writer or to register yourself in the wine writers index.