I was creating an AVA map for a regional association when I realized there are multiple data sources for mapping boundaries. Besides TTB, there is another source for spatial files of boundaries, the American Viticultural Areas (AVAs) Digitizing Project.
It was 2017, and wineries were using designated grape-growing regions on their wine labels. These America Viticultural Areas (AVA) were established by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). The boundaries were described in the documentation submitted by the applicant, but there were no maps readily available for the industry or researchers. Dr. Michele Tobias and her colleagues at UC Davis founded the American Viticultural Areas Digitizing Project five years ago. Since that time, TTB has developed its own maps, but it is the UC Davis Library maps that are sought after by viticulture researchers.
What is the AVA Digitization Project?
Replicating results is an essential aspect of scientific and social research. This often means detailed and nuanced documentation about the methodology and the data in academic publications. The AVA Digitizing Project was created for academic research purposes and, therefore needs to be well-documented with data that can ideally be freely accessed. As the TTB updates its files, historical information is not available anymore. The AVA Digitizing Project provides current and historical boundaries as they are revised or sometimes retired. The project also has quality control procedures for the boundary data using various strategies.
Who are the Users of the Datasets?
The datasets have primarily been used in environmental science studies. A few years ago, wine researchers looked at how regional differences in Pinot Noir profiles persist through aging (Cantu, 2021). There is increasing interest in using historical data for climate change studies. There has been less use in the social sciences, although there is some by Dr. Colleen Myles in her work with Arizona AVAs (Myles, 2020). Dr. Michele Tobias, the lead and manager of the AVA Digitization Project, said, “Linking this data with other spatial datasets, such as Census data or economic data, allows us better to understand the relationships between these areas.” Dr. Tobias laid the groundwork by linking the AVA dataset with climate and soil datasets for a classification study (Tobias, 2022).
Who are the Project Contributors?
The UC Davis DataLab and Library maintain the project with significant contributions from UC Santa Barbara Library and Virginia Tech, among other contributors and the public. About 30 project contributors make up the public, many but not all UC Davis students. As of March 2023, there are 267 different AVAs. For the past three years, there have been seven AVAs approved annually. The tasks of the contributors are to digitize approved boundaries, revise changed boundaries, and conduct quality control procedures. Anyone with GIS knowledge can contribute to this project but should read the process first.
How Can the Wine Industry Use the Datasets?
Although the AVA Digitization Project files are intended for academic researchers, they can be used by wine industry professionals. If you are a regional AVA association, these detailed maps are important to have on file, especially as boundary decisions are made. If you do any mapping in the wine industry, these maps are worth reviewing. If you are a data analyst with GIS skills, this might be a great wine project to participate in as a contributor. If you are on the retail side of the wine industry, these files help create maps on brochures, books, puzzles, posters, etc.
The American Viticultural Areas (AVA) Project is an open-licensed, community-contributed spatial dataset of the AVA boundaries. The datasets are free for anyone to use and available through GitHub, a repository that manages development projects. The project uses QGIS, an open-source GIS system. A description of the datasets and the data variables can be found in the data dictionary.
References
Cantu, et al (2021) Investigating the impact of regionality on the sensorial and chemical aging characteristics of Pinot noir grown throughout the U.S. West coast. Food Chemistry, 337
Myles, C., M. Tobias, & I. McKinnon. (2020). “‘A big fish in a small pond’: How Arizona wine country was made” in Agritourism, Wine Tourism, Craft Beer Tourism: Local Responses to peripherality through tourism niches.
Tobias, M. (2022). “Classifying American Viticultural Areas based on Environmental Data.” Free and Open-Source Software for Geospatial,” Academic Track, August 2022, Florence, Italy.
