In the United States, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), a division of the Treasury Department, regulates the geographic boundaries of appellations. This is part of their responsibility to oversee the safety of wines and prevent fraud to consumers. Beyond delineating appellation boundaries, regulatory concern has not yet penetrated within the vineyards. American growers are free to plant any grape varieties they fancy and may harvest as large a crop as the vines will bear, or as their concern with quality dictates.
TTB also regulates wines imported into the United States and includes some consumer protections against fraud in foreign wine. Imported wines using an appellation label must have 75% of their contents derived from grapes grown within that designated appellation. In addition, the wine must conform "to the requirements of the foreign laws and regulations governing the composition, method of production, and designation of wines available for consumption within the country of origin."
AMERICAN VITICULTURAL AREAS
The requirement for appellation labeling of wines produced in America somewhat restrictive, requiring high portion of the grapes from the named appellation. Again, the TTB is the agency that oversees the creation and adjustment of the American Viticultural Areas. The AVA system was begun in 1979, and is still in relative infancy. New AVAs are being applied for and approved each year.
To petition the TTB for a new AVA, the area must be specifically delineated geographically and have both climatic uniqueness and historical precedent, as well as either local or national recognition. It takes about US$15,000 to initiate and pursue the process through to approval and establishment, so new applications are unlikely to be sought frivolously.
The first AVA approved by the TTB in 1980 was Augusta, Missouri! The list of AVAs includes many of the most famous California place-names for wine, such as Napa Valley, Alexander Valley, and Carneros, as well as lesser-known and newer appellations, such as Sonoma Mountain, Green Valley, and Sonoma Coast.
In order to use an AVA on a wine, no less than 85% of the grapes must have been grown within the boundaries specified and the wine must "conform to the laws and regulations of the named appellation area governing the composition, method of manufacture, and designation of wines made in such place." This clause protects and defers to the authority of each State to regulate methods of wine production.
ESTATE BOTTLED
The term Estate Bottled may only be used on labels of wine where the bottling winery is located within the appellation named on the label, the grapes were entirely grown within the named appellation on land owned or controlled by the bottling winery, and the fermentation, finishing, aging, and bottling of the wine was done in one continuous process, with the wine at no time having left the premises prior to bottling.