The passage of the AVA, however, comes almost a year later than its stakeholders expected, delayed by bureaucratic shuffling in the new presidential administration.

“It’s been a very long, frustrating road,” says Rickey Trombetta Stancliff, president of the Petaluma Gap Winegrowers Alliance and owner of Trombetta Family Wines.

Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, called the AVA’s passage “long overdue.”

“It’s going to have marketing and economic benefits for the communities I represent,” he said. “But you could also say that (wine) consumers will benefit, who haven’t had the benefit of an accurate designation for all these years.”