(Wine-Searcher)  - After years of fighting, a few more wineries can now label their wines under the Sta. Rita Hills AVA.

In a triumph of climate over soils, one of North America's best appellations for Pinot Noir, Sta. Rita Hills, just got a little bigger.

The U.S. government today announced the approval of a petition to expand Sta. Rita Hills submitted by owners of three vineyards which had vines just outside it. This came despite opposition of the group that originally drew up the Sta. Rita Hills AVA.

Unlike in Europe, the U.S. government does not get involved with researching where appellation lines should be drawn. Instead, the Alcohol Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) decides yeah or nay on applications that come to it, a process that has often favored the wealthy and politically connected. In this case, the TTB sided with the petitioners, who claimed that the climate for their neighboring vineyards – last week, the appellation line ran right through one vineyard – was similar to the climate of Sta. Rita Hills.

The board of directors of the Sta. Rita Hills Winegrowers' Alliance had unanimously opposed the expansion, arguing that the AVA was based on topography – the now-former boundary was the top of a ridge line – and that the soils and vegetation were different on either side of that line.

The amount of money at stake is quite large. Blair Pence, owner of the Pence Ranch vineyard at the heart of the petition, previously told Wine-Searcher his grapes sold for $1000 per ton less than neighbors' grapes because he could not use the Sta. Rita Hills appellation.

Pence set up weather stations and proved that his ranch is actually cooler than parts of the existing Sta. Rita Hills AVA. And it is arguably the climate that has made Sta. Rita Hills famous. The region is usually foggy and cool, but it also gets very little precipitation, allowing Pinot Noir grapes to slowly ripen throughout a long growing season.