For the wine industry it's a matter of defining, understanding, and ultimately perfecting agricultural intervention in the ecological foundations of winegrowing. For consumers it's a matter of expanding consciousness about the meaningful geographical identity of North American wines.
Country, state & province and county names have long been the geographical nomenclature by which we identify wine. But these place names are really more about political culture than viticulture. While the comprehensive appellation index below still contains a number of such ecologically insensitive place names, progressive North American winegrowers have joined the world-wide movement toward a more precise ecological and environmental definition of the place characteristics of their winegrowing. As the French say, its all about terroir. Terroir-ism is a revolutionary force redrawing the vinological map of North America in terms of officially designated AVAs (American Viticultural Areas) in the United States, and DVAs (Designated Viticultural Areas) in Canada.
