Much goes into making wine unique. One of the oldest held traditions is that a wine's region plays a key part in a wine's character. This is why one of the tasks of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) is to define Americal Viticultural Areas. There are over 200 AVAs defined, and as of March 7th, 2013, there will be one more AVA, the Indiana Uplands AVA. The Indiana Uplands will be the first AVA to belong solely to Indiana.
The Indiana Uplands AVA would include several counties and towns in south-central Indiana including Bloomington, Bedford, Paoli, French Lick, Tell City, and St. Meinrad. About a dozen wineries, including Oliver Winery (link), Butler Winery, and French Lick Winery are in this new AVA which stretches some 4,800 square miles with 150 acres dedicated to vineyards. The official document from the TTB details the Indiana Uplands area further.
There already exists an AVA in portions of Indiana along the Ohio River. The Ohio River Valley AVA includes parts of Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Parts of this AVA will be realigned so that those portions of Indiana that belong to the Indiana Uplands AVA will no longer be in the Ohio River Valley AVA.
During the last ice age, Eastern Canada and the Northern portion of the Midwest were covered with glaciers. These glaciers stopped between I-70 and the Ohio river, leaving the Southern portion of Indiana and Ohio untouched. This gives Indiana Uplands a unique soil characteristic along with similar rainfall and temperature zones. These factors together make the wines in this region similar enough that the TTB created the Indiana Uplands AVA.
For more on the Indiana Uplands, see the notice from Inside Indiana Business and the Appellation America's site page for Indiana Uplands (note: this page is behind a paywall). There is also the Indiana Uplands Wine Trail which further lists and details the latest AVA
I find it interesting that Indiana is one of the oldest areas in the US for wine production.
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