在11年的战斗将遥远的海岸line of Sonoma into an official wine region

阿瓦斯（Avas）是联邦政府指定的葡萄种植边界，影响葡萄酒的标签方式。葡萄酒可以标记为“Napa Valley,” for example, only if the grapes are grown within the Napa Valley AVA. To create a new AVA, petitioners must prove that the area in question is meaningfully different from its surroundings in terms of climate, topography, soils and other physical features.

对于大多数葡萄酒消费者而言，Avas的细微差别可能仍在幕后。但是对于酿酒师来说，有很大的好处。AVA指定的葡萄酒倾向于提高价格，尤其是如果其葡萄酒能够集体为其地区建立良好的声誉。

“对我们来说，这感觉就像是一个历史时刻，”阿尔玛·弗里亚（Alma Fria）酿酒师说Carroll Kemp, who helped lead the petition. “We’ve always known the wine from here is different. I just hope that the creation of this AVA opens up the minds of consumers.”

The vintners of the West Sonoma Coast, where wine grapes were first planted in 1817, argue that they’ve long proven that their wines have special characteristics due to unique growing conditions. Cooler temperatures, thanks to the proximity to the Pacific Ocean, usually result in wines that are higher in acidity, lower in alcohol and restrained in flavor. Fog, the San Andreas Fault and steep ridges of varying altitudes can make the vineyards here harder to farm, with punishing yields, but vintners likeFlowers，欧内斯特和Marine Layer相信葡萄酒质量值得。

近年来，随着消费者对优雅，欧洲风格的低酒精葡萄酒的需求，这些寒冷的景点也是如此。黑比诺（Pinot Noir）和霞多丽（Chardonnay）是法国著名勃艮第地区的主要葡萄品种，在这里蓬勃发展。来自西索诺玛海岸葡萄园的葡萄酒已成为加利福尼亚最受欢迎的一些：Ceritas’波特低音葡萄园霞多丽；Hirsch’s Pinot Noirsfrom its estate in Cazadero; Littorai’s B.A. Thieriot Vineyard wines.

“There’s already a premium in the market,” said Andy Peay, partner inPeay Vineyards。“我们的黑比诺的黑比诺往往至少比俄罗斯河谷的许多人高10到15美元，”邻近的AVA。

Though the AVA boundaries cover 141,800 acres, only 1,000 of those are planted with grapevines, due largely to the fact that steep slopes and large swaths of forest make viticulture here difficult.

Anyone who’s driven through this area — which locals know as “West County” — will note a reflection of the wild, rugged landscape and bohemian culture in the wines. Peay finds tea, flower and pine-needle notes in many West Sonoma Coast wines. With the AVA passage, “that style will be more evident in the consumer’s mind,” he said. “You’ll know that a West Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir isn’t going to be juicy and jammy.”

建立这种AVA的第一步始于2011年，当时Kemp和Peay与同行组成了一个小组Freeman, Littorai, Joseph Phelps and Failla wineries, all of which own vineyards in the region. All were frustrated by what they viewed as the vague, largely useless Sonoma Coast AVA, which encompasses more than 500,000 acres, including areas like Carneros that are relatively far from the ocean. West Sonoma Coast vineyards, these vintners maintain, can be 10 degrees cooler than vineyards in other parts of the Sonoma Coast AVA. That meant, they felt, that some wineries were able to cash in on the cachet that the “Sonoma Coast” name had earned, even when they weren’t making particularly coastally influenced wines.

Littorai的老板泰德·柠檬（Ted Lemon）说：“有一种感觉是，几年前，当索诺玛海岸的阿瓦（Ava）变得如此之大时，这是错误的。”

这些葡萄酒商想清楚地表明，它们位于actualSonoma coast. Their vineyards are influenced in every way by the Pacific Ocean, whether located on the high ridgelines of Fort-Ross Seaview (like法拉), in the remote stretches of Annapolis (like Peay) or in the fog-shrouded forests of Freestone and Occidental (like Freeman).

该集团现在将28个酿酒厂或葡萄园视为成员 - 最终将自己命名为西索诺玛海岸葡萄酒商协会，并决定寻求AVA请愿书。他们定期品尝彼此的葡萄酒，部分是为了更好地理解自己的地区，并部分地向消费者宣传该地区。到2015年，他们有了请愿草案。

Conversations with the tax and trade bureau, however, led them to revise their original plan. The main reason: Although the bureau will approve AVAs that are nested entirely within existing AVAs, partial overlaps are not allowed. The original boundaries that the West Sonoma Coast Vintners drew up had overlapped with portions of the Russian River Valley AVA, including a portion of the Freestone Valley and the Sebastopol Hills. Ultimately, they had to omit those segments from the new AVA boundaries in order to get the petition approved.

As it now stands, the West Sonoma Coast AVA encompasses land east of the Pacific Ocean, south of the Mendocino County border, north of thePetaluma Gap Avaand west of the Russian River Valley AVA. Wineries can begin putting West Sonoma Coast AVA on labels 30 days after its publication by the trade bureau. (The move has no effect on the larger Sonoma Coast AVA, which wineries can continue to use on labels.) The region includes the small subregionFort Ross-Seaview，该公司在2011年获得AVA状态，并完全嵌套在较大的Sonoma Coast Ava中。

What comes next, Kemp says, is the hard part: getting out there and conveying the West Sonoma Coast magic to the masses. Ideally, the message of higher natural acidity — “more bright than brooding, more aromatic than thick-bodied,” in Kemp’s words — will be more widely understood by wine drinkers.

Undoubtedly, that will help the vintners of the West Sonoma Coast build stronger businesses. But to Peay, the passage of the AVA has an even deeper significance.

He points to Burgundy, where growers have deeply studied the differences between neighboring villages like Gevrey-Chambertin and Morey-St.-Denis over centuries. “In all the wine-growing regions of the world that have been around for a long time, people take it upon themselves to help define their area,” Peay said. “To try to understand what makes their land unique. And so I feel like that’s our responsibility.”