2026-09-01
The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau updated its list of pending American Viticultural Area petitions on Tuesday, showing 31 proposals that have been accepted as complete enough for federal review but have not yet moved into formal rulemaking.
The list, posted on the agency’s website and marked last updated Sept. 1, covers petitions from 2021 through 2026. They range from requests to create new wine grape-growing regions to proposals to expand existing areas, adjust boundaries or change an established name. AVAs are federally defined grape-growing regions that can be used on wine labels to identify origin.
TTB said each petition on the list has been “accepted as perfected” under Part 9 of its regulations. The agency also said that status only means a petition meets the filing requirements. It does not mean TTB will necessarily issue a proposed rule. If the agency does decide to move forward, the petition will be removed from the pending list when a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is published in the Federal Register. At that point, a public docket with the petition and the proposed rule would be available on Regulations.gov for public comment.
California continues to dominate the pending docket. Sixteen of the 31 petitions are from California, including proposals in Sonoma, Monterey, Napa, San Diego, Fresno and Lake counties. Sonoma County alone appears repeatedly on the list, with pending matters that include the Sonoma Coast–Dry Creek Valley boundary realignment, Pocket Peak, Rockpile expansion, Sebastopol Hills, Freestone-Occidental, Sonoma Coast expansion and Annapolis-Sea Ranch. Napa County petitions include Suscol District, Atlas Peak expansion and Lake Hennessey.
The oldest item still pending is the Sonoma Coast–Dry Creek Valley boundary realignment petition, which TTB said was accepted as perfected on Nov. 19, 2021. Other California petitions accepted in 2022 and 2023 include Carmel Coast in Monterey County, Rockpile expansion in Sonoma County, Arroyo Seco expansion in Monterey County, Highland Valley in San Diego County and Suscol District in Napa County. More recent California filings include Mount St. Helena–Lake County, Collayomi Valley and Lake Hennessey, along with a petition to change the name of Squaw Valley-Miramonte in Fresno County.
The list also shows a broader geographic spread beyond the main West Coast wine regions. In Washington state, pending matters include Mount St. Helens, covering Clark, Cowlitz, Lewis and Skamania counties, a Walla Walla Valley expansion, and a Red Mountain–Goose Gap boundary modification in Benton County. Oregon has petitions for The Dalles in Wasco County and Deschutes River across Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties. Virginia has a pending Monticello expansion in Nelson County.
Several petitions come from states that are less commonly associated with federally recognized wine appellations. TTB’s list includes West Tennessee, covering multiple counties and submitted by the Tennessee Wine and Grape Board within the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, and Greater Zion in Washington County, Utah. It also includes Dell Valley in Hudspeth County, Texas; Niagara Lake Plain in Niagara County, New York; Hunterdon Hills in Hunterdon County, New Jersey; and Sunnyslope Idaho in Canyon County, Idaho. Oklahoma is represented by a Texoma expansion petition covering Bryan, Carter, Jefferson, Johnson, Love and Marshall counties.
The two newest petitions on the list were accepted this year. Minnesota’s Glacial Ridge, submitted by Melanie and Joseph Cihlar, was accepted as perfected on May 26, 2026, and covers Douglas, Grant, Kandiyohi, Pope, Stearns and Swift counties. Click Mountain, submitted by Joseph Forrest for Yadkin County, North Carolina, was accepted on June 24, 2026.
Some of the pending matters seek to alter existing appellations rather than establish entirely new ones. Those include Rockpile expansion, Arroyo Seco expansion, Atlas Peak expansion, Monticello expansion, Sonoma Coast expansion and Texoma expansion. The list also includes boundary-specific actions such as the Sonoma Coast–Dry Creek Valley realignment and the Red Mountain–Goose Gap boundary modification. One petition seeks only a name change, for Squaw Valley-Miramonte in Fresno County.
TTB said copies of the petitions and related exhibits are not posted directly with the pending list. Instead, the agency said they are available through a Freedom of Information Act request. The agency also directs petitioners and the public to its AVA manual and related guidance for information on how new petitions are prepared and reviewed.
The current docket shows both the long timeline and the wide range of interests involved in the AVA process. Petitioners on the list include individual growers and researchers, winegrower associations, wineries, limited liability companies and state agriculture agencies. Until TTB decides whether to open formal rulemaking on any of the proposals, the petitions will remain on the agency’s pending list.