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.

With more than 80 wineries in the state, North Carolina is taking wine seriously, with a combined effort by state government, regional tourism bureaus, winery owners, grape growers, chambers, and associations to transform the state from its history of textiles and tobacco production to a future of tourism, wine and green industry. In the process, the Haw River’s polluted history of service to textile manufacturing was cleaned up to the point that visiting tourists from urban centers such as Greensboro are able to paddle along and stop for wine tastings on its shores.

But how did this relatively large area with only six of the state’s 80 plus operating wineries and some 14 additional growers get its own AVA?

There might seem to be lots of bigger, even better-known candidates both in North Carolina and certainly in other Southeastern states. (Georgia for instance, has only one designation - Georgia.) According to Patricia McRitchie, attorney, wine consultant and winery owner, a combination of factors came together for this designation, including unique soils, climate and history. McRitchie served throughout the petition process as consultant and point person to the wineries, the Alamance County Economic Development Foundation and the Chamber of Commerce.

Technically, the TTB states that to be granted an AVA a wine-growing area needs to demonstrate that its history, climate, soils, elevation and geographic history are in some way unique and that the wine consumer would want to know this when purchasing a product from the area. Thus, a consumer can expect certain quality, reputation or taste characteristics from the grapes grown in the area. The petition, over 100 pages long, had to address this and many more concerns.

“We waited two years from the date of filing,” McRitchie said. “And there was another year of preparation before that. We were uncontested, or it could have taken much longer - or it could have been denied.” She also handled the petition for North Carolina’s second approved AVA, Swan Creek, which is within the Yadkin appellation.

Margo Knight Metzger, Executive Director of the North Carolina Wine & Grape Council, feels the AVA was granted because the wineries and vineyards in the region were able to make a strong case that their region is unique.

“They proved they are making quality wines,” she said. “Now, when a consumer sees the designation on the label, they can feel more confident about buying the product. Geographically, North Carolina has a very diverse landscape with a wide variance in climate and soil types. Wines produced here are likewise extremely diverse in character. That’s why AVA designations are so important - to help the consumer understand a wine’s sense of place. “

“A wine grown in the sandy soil of the coast is going to be dramatically different from a wine grown in the Piedmont or in the mountains. The announcement of the new Haw River AVA gives additional credibility to our state’s burgeoning wine industry. Haw River is the state’s third AVA, and we expect several more to be designated in the next few years. Each is a feather in the cap of our industry, which has made great strides recently in gaining recognition as a wine state.”

What made the designation credible to the TTB is a bit more technical. In summary, the McRitchie filing for Haw succeeded in convincing the reviewers of the following:

Unique Geography Evidence that the proposed area has geographical features such as climate, soils, elevations and other physical features that distinguish it from surrounding areas. McRitchie petitioned that 98 percent of the proposed AVA lies in the watershed of the Haw River Valley and shares common connections of the above attributes.

Name Recognition and History Current and historical evidence that the area is locally and/or nationally known by the name specified in the petition is a requirement. For this, McRitchie provided evidence that the name Haw originated with the Sissipahaw Indians living in small villages along the river before the arrival of the Europeans in the 16 Century, and the n