Upper Mississippi Valley AVA

Upper Mississippi River Valley AVA

Wine region
The Upper Mississippi River Valley AVA in NW Illinois, NE Iowa, SE Minnesota and SW Wisconsin.
Type	American Viticultural Area
Year established	2009
Country	United States
Part of	Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin
Climate region	Continental
Total area	19,144,960 acres (29,914 sq mi) (67,300 sq km)

The Upper Mississippi River Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area covering 29,914 square miles (77,477 square kilometers), (19,144,960 acres) located along the Upper Mississippi River and its tributaries in northwest Illinois, northeast Iowa, southeast Minnesota and southwest Wisconsin. Certified by the United States Department of the Treasury's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau on July 22, 2009, it is the largest AVA in the United States. The AVA encompasses an area 50 times larger than the Bordeaux wine regions of France.

Grapes have been grown in Upper Mississippi River region since the earliest of times. The Vitis riparia is a grape native to the southern half of Minnesota and Wisconsin, where it flourishes along the many riverbanks of the Mississippi and its tributaries. The native Sioux and Ojibwa ate the fresh berries and used the dry fruit in pemmican. They apparently did not, however, ferment the grapes into wine. The early settlers called it the frost grape, as it was best when picked after the first hard frost.

With the influx of settlers in the 1840s and '50s, grape growing was tried along with all other horticultural pursuits. Varieties developed on the eastern seaboard such as the Concord were somewhat successful. The fruit was commercially used for fresh fruits or preserves. No wine was made except for personal use. However, these eastern varieties were not quite hardy enough and the coldest of winters, together with the growth of the California fresh fruit industry, eventually did the industry in. By the 1930s grape growing was limited to backyard vineyards for family use only.

The first winery in this region, Alexis Bailly Vineyard and Winery, was opened in 1973 near Hastings, Minnesota. At the time it was believed that this part of the Upper Mississippi Valley endured winters that were too cold to sustain viticulture.