The Shenandoah Valley AVA
July 14, 2025. The next few blog posts will report on our visits to wineries and vineyards in the Shenandoah Valley American Viticultural Area (AVA). We have visited the Valley in prior years, but I don’t think we’ve talked about the AVA itself. The Shenandoah Valley was the first AVA established in Virginia – dating to December 1982. 47 FR 57696 (12/28/1982); 27 CFR 9.60. The Federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) had to resolve two major issues before establishing the AVA: The Name . In 1981, the ATF received a petition from Shenandoah Vineyards to designate a large region between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains as the “Shenandoah Valley” AVA. However, more than a year earlier, a group of local businesses in California petitioned the ATF to designate their Shenandoah Valley, due east from Sacramento, as the AVA. After public hearings in California and Virginia, the ATF solved this conflict by establishing the...