Decanter World Wine AwardsUS consumers 'confused' by multiple Sonoma AVAs
- Thursday 24 January 2013
'Is it a town? A county?': confusion over Sonoma AVAs
There is confusion in the marketplace regarding the differences between the many appellations that include the name ‘Sonoma’, the Sonoma Valley Vintners and Growers Alliance reckons.
‘We know that Sonoma Valley has very distinct appellations, but there is confusion with the title. Is it a coast? Is it a valley? Is it a town? A county? Or all?’ executive director Maureen Cottingham said.
The 400,000ha Sonoma County appellation includes 15 sub-regions, 60 miles of coastline and more than 25,000ha of vineyards.
A recent survey of 1,000 US consumers shows that, when purchasing wine, few differentiate between Sonoma County and Sonoma Valley and that using both on a label may even be a disadvantage.
‘The presence of an AVA with “Sonoma” already in the name (e.g. Sonoma Mountain) may complicate understanding of conjunctive labeling,’ the survey by research company Wine Opinions says.
‘While a substantial number of consumers (42%) can comprehend that a “Sonoma-named” AVA can reside within Sonoma County, over one-quarter are confused by combinations like ‘Sonoma Mountain, Sonoma County” and 22% believe that this indicates a blend of Sonoma Mountain and Sonoma County fruit.’
Additionally problematic is the name Sonoma Valley, which includes three sub-AVAS (Bennett Valley, Carneros and Sonoma Mountain) and one proposed sub-AVA (Moon Mountain), two of which are high altitude, mountainous regions.
The SVVGA’s ‘Roots Run Deep’ campaign is separate but complementary to the 'We are Sonoma' campaign launched by the Sonoma County Vintners and Sonoma County Tourism earlier this month, Cottingham said.
Have your say!
Honore Comfort
February 04 23:59
The research that this blog post cites was conducted back in 2009, and is not the research recently presented by the Sonoma County Winegrowers and Sonoma County Vintners. The most recent study clearly articulates the strength of identifying both the AVA and the region on wine labels. A summary and extract of the new 2012 research will be available.
Patrick W Fegan
January 28 16:11
It's important not to mix apples and oranges. "Sonoma County" is not an AVA (political entities like counties and states are not allowed that status). And Sonoma County has a land area of just over 1 million acres, not 400,000.
I can see how confusing the AVA scene in Sonoma county might be if one does not take the time to look at a map. But that's easily remedied.
William Crowley
January 25 17:45
No surprise here. I'm guessing 90% of the AVAs in the U.S. are meaningless to 90% of wine consumers. And some of the AVAs are meaningless as well. Gallo used its power to have the boundaries of the Russian River Valley extended so far south--to include a large vineyard it owned that all local folks know is not in the "real" Russian River Valley--that any claim to uniqueness of the area is rendered unsupportable. I might add that "Sonoma County" (nor any other county) is not an AVA (as claimed in your first sentence). Only 75% of the grapes in a wine have to come from within a county designation. AVAs require 85% of the fruit originate within their limits.