ABSTRACT
"Wine country," as the term is used by typical travelers and wine lovers, sets apart in their minds places that are characterized by the presence of vineyards, wineries, and often small towns that serve the local population and visitors. The study of wine and geography constitutes a delightful marriage, a union not likely to end in either disillusion or dissolution. Professional geographers approach their studies of wine in two separate, if not always distinctively differentiated, ways. Wine regions have boundaries that can be drawn around them, and that process has been going on unofficially for decades and officially as implemented by the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) for more than a decade now, with the BATF designation of American Viticultural Areas (AVAs). America's viticultural landscapes, or winescapes, are human creations that have unfolded as the elements of the natural landscape—land-forms, climates, vegetation, soils, and water supplies——have been brought together with the environmental needs of wine grapes.
