Palos Verdes Peninsula becomes official wine-growing region

PALOS VERDES, Calif. (KABC) -- Away from the rolling hills of Napa, Sonoma and Temecula, there's a new kind of wine region: Palos Verdes.

In July, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau established the area as an American Viticultural Area (AVA), allowing its 10 growers to separate themselves as Palos Verdes Peninsula-grown wine.

Jim York led the process to get officially recognized as an AVA.

"We're right on the ocean, this is a hill, everything's flat around us," said York, who owns Catalina View Wines. "That part was relatively easy."

The harder part was an application and review process that took three years.

With it, PV became the 142nd AVA in the state. More than half of the regions in the country are from California.

On harvesting day at Catalina View, the new grapes also represented a new chapter. It took five hours to harvest the Pinot Noir grapes and put them into chilled trucks to be sent to Ken Brown wines north of Santa Barbara. The winery then turns the grapes into wine. This year, because of the AVA distinction, the bottles will market themselves more specifically.

"It says California," said York, pointing to the label on a bottle of his Chardonnay. "People don't know where is this, and you can't say anything about Palos Verdes Peninsula on this label."

That will soon change. Palos Verdes Peninsula, as an official region, means it can show up as such in stores and on menus.