Central Coast AVA

Central Coast is a vast American Viticultural Area (AVA) that spans along the Central California Pacific coastline from the San Francisco Bay Area south through Monterey, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties. It was established on November 25, 1985 by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), Treasury after reviewing the petition submitted by Taylor California Cellars, a winery in Gonzales, California, to establish the "Central Coast" viticultural area. The boundaries of the Central Coast, which have been expanded twice, includes portions of six counties where approximately 100000 acre cultivated with Chardonnay being more than half of the varietal. Within the multi-county AVA are numerous established appellations that share the same maritime climate produced by the Pacific Ocean.

Counties
County names in the United States automatically qualify as legal appellations of origin for wine produced from grapes grown in that county and do not require registration with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). TTB was created in January 2003, when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, or ATF, was extensively reorganized under the provisions of the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The counties within Central Coast are:
 * San Francisco County
 * Alameda County
 * Contra Costa County
 * San Mateo Cpunty
 * Santa Clara County
 * Santa Cruz County
 * Monterey County
 * San Benito County
 * San Luis Obispo County
 * Santa Barbara County