Agribusiness Henderson County (AgHC) has been steering a rigorous process to gain a federal designation as an American Viticultural Area (AVA) for local grape and wine producers.
An AVA is a grape-growing region having distinguishing features, a name and a delineated boundary. These designations allow vintners and consumers to attribute a given quality, reputation, or other characteristics of a wine made from grapes grown in an area of the wine’s geographic origin. The establishment of AVAs allows vintners to describe more accurately the origin of their wines to consumers and helps consumers to identify wines they may purchase. For a wine to be labeled with an AVA name, at least 85 percent of the wine must be derived from grapes grown within the area represented by that name. Examples of AVAs are Napa and Sonoma Valley in California and Yadkin Valley, here in North Carolina.
AgHC’s Executive Director, Mark Williams has been actively working with local growers and wineries for our own AVA, “Crest of the Blue Ridge Henderson County” and efforts recently hit a big stride.
A petition for the designation was jointly filed with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) in December 2016, by Williams, on behalf of AgHC, and Barbara Walker, support specialist for NC Cooperative Extension (now retired). Receiving an AVA designation typically takes three or more years for final approval and involves multiple steps. On December 6, 2018, the TTB posted the petition for public comment, following the initial “proposed rulemaking”. Williams indicates, “this is no small step to get to this point and it has taken a team effort, working with our established vineyards, Burntshirt, Saint Paul Mountain and Point Lookout, along with NC Cooperative Extension and the Henderson County TDA.”
There are more steps to follow, which the TBB estimates may take another year. AgHC is hopeful the final approval will come sooner and indicates Congressman Mark Meadows and his staff have been very supportive of the initiative and based on a letter sent to the TTB, “strongly encourage the TTB to adopt the proposed rule.”
Sandra Oates, co-owner of Burntshirt Vineyards, with her husband, Lemuel and board member of AgHC said, “This will be a huge step in the right direction for the wine industry and assist in establishing this region as a designated wine producing area. The economic growth from this AVA designation will be substantial for Henderson County. How exciting!”
The proposal seeks to establish approximately 215-square miles as “Crest of the Blue Ridge Henderson County” AVA. The area has 14 commercial vineyards over 70 acres, with several existing vineyards planning to expand by a combined 55 additional acres in the next 5 years. Two wineries were located within the AVA at the time of application and a third has already been added. AgHC indicates Henderson County has at least three more wineries on track to open over the next couple of years and in addition, the County has three hard cider producers.
AgHC began facilitating meetings about three years ago with Burntshirt and Saint Paul Mountain vineyards, along with Flat Rock Cider and Bold Rock, since hard cider falls into the category of wine by alcoholic beverage standards. The goal was to brand this category of locally produced items by a descriptive and catchy name.
Barbara Walker suggested “Crest of the Blue Ridge”, a term first used by Colonel Joseph Pratt, who was the chief of the North Carolina Geological and Economic Survey from 1906 to 1923. Pratt proposed creating a scenic road and chain of tourist hotels atop or adjacent to the summit of the Blue Ridge Mountains and named the project the “Crest of the Blue Ridge Highway.” Several small sections of the road were built, but the start of World War I interrupted the work, and completion was put on hold. In the end, the project was never completed, but the term “Crest of the Blue Ridge” survived and remains in widespread, present-day use to describe areas of the Southern Appalachians, especially in North Carolina.
The AVA petition requires identification of distinguishing features, along with name evidence. The distinguishing features of the proposed Crest of the Blue Ridge Henderson County AVA are its climate and elevation. Warm days and cool mountain nights during the growing season, coupled with the right soils and quality water, provides a favorable and unique combination for grape production. Geographically the area straddles the Blue Ridge Escarpment and the Blue Ridge Plateau, which are separated by the Eastern Continental Divide, also known as the Crest of the Blue Ridge. Attaching “Henderson County” to the name specifically identifies the area.
Henderson County is also promoted as the Crest of the Blue Ridge Agricultural Area for its wide variety of commercial agricultural products. AgHC specifically promotes the county’s farm businesses through its Southern Mountain Fresh brand, which states, “Enjoy the freshness of the Crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains and sustain our local heritage.”
In early meetings held with producers, it was also decided that since “Crest of the Blue Ridge” was being broadly used to market Henderson County agriculture and agritourism in general and that trademarking it would be wise. Burnshirt volunteered to take the helm in this effort and it was agreed that guardianship of the trademark would be placed with the Henderson County TDA because of the funding they would provide from revenues generated by hotel room taxes.
“We have a unique agricultural production area with flavorful products that capture the essence of the Crest of the Blue Ridge. AgHC is striving to make sure that’s well known,” said Williams. The AVA designation fits this mission.
The public may help this initiative by visiting and commenting on the online public proposed rule docket, which can be accessed by going to www.regulations.gov and searching for “TTB-2018-0009”. Public comments may be submitted until February 4, 2019.
Agribusiness Henderson County is a public and privately funded non-profit which promotes the economic development of agriculture and agribusiness in Henderson County and assists new and existing operations to foster growth in the industry. Southern Mountain Fresh is the local brand created by Agribusiness Henderson County.