(Wines&Vines) - The new Loess Hills District American Viticultural Area along the western border of Iowa and Missouri became official April 4. The AVA covers a long, somewhat narrow area along the Big Sioux and Missouri Rivers from Hawarden, Iowa, to Craig, Mo. Most of the 12,897 square miles in the AVA are in Iowa, but the unique soil type in the region continues into Missouri, and consequently, Missouri’s Atchison and Holt counties are included as well. There are 13 wineries in the Loess Hills District AVA and approximately 66 vineyards with a total of 112 acres planted to grapes.

Doug Grave, president of the Western Iowa Grape Growers Association (WIGGA) and owner of Bodega Victoriana Vineyard and Winery in Glenwood, Iowa, and Andy Hrasky, owner and winemaker at Prairie Crossing Vineyard and Winery in Treynor, Iowa, started the process of creating the AVA four years ago. The two wrote grant proposals to fund the effort, and then WIGGA partnered with Golden Hills Resource Conservation and Development to coordinate the research on climatology, land formations and geological studies and to draft the petition for submission to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). The application for the AVA was accepted as perfected by the TTB on Nov. 26, 2013. 

For a grapegrowing area to be designated an AVA, it must be characterized by distinct geographic features. In the case of the Loess Hills District, those features include its unique soil type, topography and climate.