Regional wine quality reputation: The perceptions and possibilities in the Shawnee Hills AVA

here is a growing consumer preference for regional or "terroir" based products (Guy 2011). The designation of AVA status has the potential to increase the development of consumer identification with regional wine products. The presence of a distinguishing terroir is one of the prerequisites for the establishment of a federally recognized American Viticultural Area (AVA) (TTB 2012). The TTB granted the Shawnee Hills, located in southern Illinois, this designation at their request in 2006 (MKF 2005). The goal of this project was to determine the economic impact of a regional reputation on a wine-producing region. The project examined two California wine-producing regions progressing in wine quality development and with an established AVA designation and a wine culture in place, the Lodi AVA and the Central Coast AVA. A regression model was used to measure the source of these regions' growth in grower return per ton (price). Our results show the importance of achieving an AVA designation, an increase of...