The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) published a final rule establishing the Columbia Hills AVA, and shortly after proposed five additional AVAs across the country. For growers and wineries inside or near these regions, understanding what an AVA designation changes—on your label, on your Certificate of Label Approval (COLA), and in your cellar records—is essential before the ink dries on your next vintage.

Columbia Hills: Now Official

TTB published the Columbia Hills AVA final rule in the Federal Register on August 17, 2026 [1]. The rule took effect on September 16, 2026, making Columbia Hills an official, legally recognized viticultural area located in Klickitat County, Washington [1].

Using the name before that effective date—even if your fruit comes entirely from within the boundary—would put a label out of compliance. If you had wines already in the pipeline, your labels would need to reference Columbia Valley or another approved appellation until that date passed.

Columbia Hills is a nested AVA: it sits entirely within the larger Columbia Valley AVA [1]. This is a common structure in American wine geography—think of the way Rutherford and Oakville sit within Napa Valley, or how Dundee Hills sits within the Willamette Valley AVA. Nested AVAs let producers make a more specific geographic claim, but they also come with a labeling choice: you can use the sub-AVA name (Columbia Hills), the parent AVA name (Columbia Valley), or both, as long as you meet the applicable sourcing requirements for whichever appellation you claim.

Five AVAs Proposed

TTB also proposed five new AVAs. The proposals cover a wide geographic sweep:

Kaw Valley (Kansas)
Mill Creek–Walla Walla Valley (Walla Walla County, Washington) [1]
Llano Uplift (Texas)
Hickory Sands District (Texas)
Rancho Santa Fe (San Diego County, California)

For proposed AVAs, none of the labeling options exist yet. A winery in the Kaw Valley, Mill Creek–Walla Walla Valley, Llano Uplift, Hickory Sands, or Rancho Santa Fe footprint cannot use those names on a label until TTB publishes a final rule and the effective date arrives.

Nesting Layers: Walla Walla and Texas

Two of these proposals introduce multi-layer nesting worth understanding:

Mill Creek–Walla Walla Valley would sit inside both Columbia Valley and Walla Walla Valley [1]. That means a winery using the Mill Creek–Walla Walla Valley appellation would be making the most specific geographic claim in a three-tier hierarchy: Mill Creek–Walla Walla Valley → Walla Walla Valley → Columbia Valley. Alternatively, that winery could step up to either parent AVA, provided sourcing requirements are met for the chosen appellation.

Hickory Sands District would nest inside Llano Uplift, which itself would sit inside Texas Hill Country [1]. If both proposals are finalized, Hickory Sands District would be the innermost of a three-level hierarchy: Hickory Sands District → Llano Uplift → Texas Hill Country. Wineries in that footprint would have three levels of geographic specificity to choose from on their labels—each requiring documented fruit sourcing to back up the claim.

This kind of layered nesting is increasingly common as American wine regions mature and producers seek more precise terroir differentiation, much like Finger Lakes wineries distinguish between Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake within the broader Finger Lakes AVA.

What a New AVA Changes on Labels and COLAs

When a new AVA is established by final rule, the clock starts on its effective date—not the publication date, and certainly not the proposal date. Before the effective date, the name simply does not exist as a legal appellation of origin, and TTB will not approve a COLA that uses it.

Once the effective date passes:

New COLAs can be submitted through TTB's COLAs Online system listing the new AVA as the appellation of origin, provided the wine meets sourcing requirements.
Existing approved COLAs that reference a parent AVA remain valid—you don't need to refile just because a sub-AVA was created inside your region.
Wines in bottle or in barrel labeled before the effective date under a different appellation cannot retroactively claim the new AVA name.

Documenting Fruit for AVA Labeling Compliance

Whether you're inside Columbia Hills today or hoping to use a proposed AVA name in the future, the documentation requirement is the same: you need a clear, auditable chain of custody from vineyard block to finished wine.

At a practical level, this means:

Vineyard records that identify which blocks or parcels fall inside the AVA boundary, with harvest weights by block.
Intake and lot traceability records showing which lots were filled from which vineyard sources.
Blending and fermentation records that allow you to calculate the sourcing percentage for any given bottling.

This is not just a best practice—it's the evidentiary foundation TTB expects if your labeling is ever audited. For wineries using Cepaos, the platform's vineyard-block management, harvest intake with grape reception and lot traceability, and winemaking vessel records—including fermentation follow-up and blend documentation—are built to support exactly this kind of AVA compliance trail. Cepaos also includes regulatory compliance tools aligned with TTB reporting needs, so your cellar book and source documentation stay organized in one place.

What to Watch Next

Wineries and growers inside these proposed boundaries should:

Monitor the Federal Register and TTB's website for final rule publication dates.
Begin documenting fruit sources now, by block and by harvest lot, so that if a final rule is published, you have the records to support an AVA label claim from the very first eligible vintage.
Consult with your COLA specialist before submitting any label that references a proposed AVA name—approval is not possible until the final rule is in effect.

Staying ahead of the regulatory timeline is what separates wineries that can market a new appellation on day one from those still scrambling to catch up.

Ready to build the traceability and compliance records your winery needs for AVA labeling? Explore how Cepaos supports TTB compliance and lot documentation for U.S. wineries.

Sources

Home — ttb.gov, published 218 days ago. https://www.ttb.gov/