Upper Mississippi Valley is the largest American Viticultural Area (AVA) in North America and the largest designated wine-producing region in the world. Covering 30,000 square miles (77,000 sq km) of land surrounding the Upper Mississippi River, it is home to just a few hundred acres of wine-producing grapes. Cold-hardy varieties such as Chardonel, Edelweiss and Saint-Croix do best in the region's cool continental climate.
This vast area encompasses a huge variety of topography, seemingly at odds with the idea of an AVA as a distinct geographical region. However, the Upper Mississippi Valley is the result of glacial activity in the last Ice Age and proved different enough from the surrounding landscape for the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to designate it as an AVA in July 2009. The north-western corner of Illinois falls within the boundaries of the area, which also covers land in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.
For more-detailed information about this AVA, see Upper Mississippi Valley – Iowa.
