(Wines&Vines) - All it took was “Money and time,” said winemaker Merry Edwards, describing the denouement of her lengthy and ultimately unsuccessful fight to prevent expansion of the Russian River Valley viticultural area. “I didn’t call you back before because it was too depressing.” After years of regulatory wrangling, mega-producer E. & J. Gallo Winery eventually emerged victorious in its quest to enlarge the RRV AVA, in a decision announced by the Alcohol and Tobacco Trade Bureau (TTB) on Nov. 16, 2011, effective Dec. 16. The ruling expands the RRV AVA by 14,044 acres and the overlapping Northern Sonoma AVA by 44,244 acres.