Much ado about AVAs

Winemakers in America are increasingly running foul of regulations that have kept pace neither with the march of technology nor with the evolving ingenuity of business. Some of the latest controversies in American wine have to do with trying to decide what criteria should be used to determine where a wine is from. This seemingly simple question doesn’t have an easy answer, thanks to America’s complex and antiquated laws governing alcohol sales and, more importantly, alcohol labelling. 

Place of origin has seemingly been a crucial component...